Best Startup Scotland
Green Bioactives Ltd (‘GBL’), a world-leader in the discovery, development and sustainable production of high-value natural products derived from plant cell cultures, announces that it has successfully completed a £2.6 million seed financing round. The funding round was led by Eos Advisory LLP and included investments from London-based Regenerate Ventures’ Agtech Fund, London and Singapore co-headquartered Milltrust International Group, and Scottish Enterprise, which also provided the company with advisory support.
The financing will enable the company to grow its management, production and research team capabilities, allowing the company to demonstrate its biomanufacturing approach at larger scale.
GBL is currently working with several world-leading partners to produce high value bioactives that cannot be readily produced sustainably or economically using alternative production approaches. These include:
- A multinational consumer goods company developing and selling products in foods and drinks, home care, personal care and cosmetics
- A multinational biotechnology company developing and selling products for commercial applications in pharmaceuticals, consumer healthcare and agriculture
- A global agricultural solutions company specialising in the development, marketing, and processing of agricultural inputs such as crop protection products, seeds, and fertilizers.
The funds will also be used to pursue new sector-specific commercial partnerships, to increase marketing efforts and product sales and to secure IP and Freedom to Operate on both the company’s core biomanufacturing process components and its product-specific plant cell lines. To meet these goals, Green Bioactives has already begun hiring for a range of commercial and technical roles across the business.
Andrew Durkie, Partner at Eos, will join the Green Bioactives Board of Directors.
David McElroy, CEO of Green Bioactives, commented: “This £2.6m seed funding is an incredibly exciting milestone for Green Bioactives, and we’re delighted to have attracted such a strong international investor base – demonstrating the global commercial potential of our plant cell culture-based biomanufacturing platform. The investment comes at a key time for the company, as we prepare for further growth and continue to develop our technology, working towards our goal of becoming the world’s leading supplier of safe, natural and sustainably-sourced plant-derived products.”
Andrew Durkie, Partner at Eos, added: “Green Bioactives represents an exciting, innovative approach to the production of plant-derived natural products, and the company’s ethos of sustainability makes it a stand-out player at a time when companies across a range of industries are searching for more environmentally-friendly and commercially-viable ways to produce these kinds of products. Green Bioactives has demonstrated significant progress on its platform since its formation, and we’re excited to be helping the company develop further as part of this seed round.”
About Green Bioactives
Green Bioactives (“GBL”) is a world leader in the commercial utilisation of plant vascular stem cells, which has allowed it to create a reliable and economically attractive platform for the sustainable biomanufacturing of plant biomolecules for commercial applications in the cosmetics, pharma, food and agricultural industries.
GBL’s platform provides much improved and sustainable access to the huge, diverse, and valuable library of bioactives generated by the world’s plant population.
GBL is working with several world leading partners to produce high value bioactives that cannot be produced sustainably or economically using other approaches. The company’s capabilities span initial isolation of the bioactive producing plant cells through to the supply of the final purified product.
GBL’s knowledge of plant vascular stem cells also provides the opportunity for the company to develop novel approaches that address the global need for sustainable, more efficient food production.
GBL was founded in 2020 and is currently based at the Roslin Innovation Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
For more information visit: www.green-bioactives.com
About Eos Advisory LLP
Eos Advisory invests in early-stage science, engineering and technology based innovations that positively impacts our world to improve quality of life, make agriculture and aquaculture more sustainable, mitigate climate change and find new energy solutions.
About Milltrust International Group’s Green Earth Ventures Fund
Under a single mantra of Sustainable Prosperity, Milltrust International Group is a specialist, award-winning investment organisation co-headquartered in London and Singapore offering a range life-changing investment solutions seeking to address some of the greatest themes of our generation including the development of emerging economies, rising food demand, technological revolutions and climate change. Clients include pension funds, sovereign entities, family offices, entrepreneurs and HNWIs. The firm operates in a regulated capacity across multiple jurisdictions including the UK, Singapore, Ireland, and Cayman.
About Regenerate Ventures Agtech Fund
Regenerate Ventures Agtech Fund invests in early-stage companies developing decarbonisation technologies that help farmers produce food with less environmental impact employing regenerative and net zero strategies.
About Scottish Enterprise
Scottish Enterprise (SE) is Scotland’s national economic development agency and a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. It supports businesses to innovate and scale to transform the Scottish economy by focusing on new market opportunities through targeted investment, innovation and internationalisation.
