Pre-competitive consortium · Allocation underway

Get to commercial scale years earlier than your balance sheet allows.

Companies across food, nutraceuticals, cosmetics and materials are pooling tanks, engineering and capital, so that no member has to buy a 50,000 liter plant on their own to find out whether their process works at scale.

I want to join See membership options

Members admitted on an ongoing basis. Terms fixed for one year. No multi-year lock-in.

DozensVessels up to 2,000 L available now, larger under construction
50,000 LConsortium facility coming online 2027
3 to 5×CapEx penalty you avoid by not building to pharma spec
4Reactor configurations under one joint program

The cohort, across four roles

Startups Corporates Equipment and service partners Research partners

Startups bring the processes. Corporates bring demand. Equipment partners bring vessels and engineering. Research partners bring independent capability. Sixty per cent of the 2027 facility is reserved for members who commit before it is certain, and that pool shrinks with every signature.

In short

What this is.

Shared steel

Vessels up to 2,000 liters available now, 6,000 in construction, and a 50,000 liter facility for 2027. Booked at cost plus, not CDMO rates.

Joint engineering

Four working groups and jointly funded studies that answer the scale-up questions every member would otherwise pay to answer alone.

Nothing surrendered

No shared database, no process records handed over. You bring experience and judgment. You keep your IP.

Two reasons to be here

One problem. Two very different stakes.

Startups need investment or offtake before they can reach scale. Corporates need proven scale before they commit to either. Neither side can move first alone.

If you buy

Manufacturers and ingredient buyers.

Priority offtake across every producer in the group rather than a bet on one company, and a route to commercial supply of one to three years instead of seven to ten.

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Read on

Everything, in six short sections.

Start wherever your question is.

01

The challenge

Why processes stall at 1 m³, and what changes when a group carries the capital.

Read → 02

Capacity

The vessels, the 2027 facility, and how tank time is allocated.

Read → 03

Program

Working groups, joint studies, and what you actually contribute.

Read → 04

Membership

Who qualifies, what each tier costs, and the in-kind route.

Read → 05

About

The founding members and how the group is governed.

Read → 06

FAQ

Data, IP, legality, and the 2027 date.

Read →

The next vessel does not have to be yours.

We admit members on an ongoing basis. Terms are fixed for one year from signature with no multi-year lock-in. Tell us what you are making and what volume you need, and we will tell you whether this fits.

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The challenge

Everyone is solving the same problem, separately.

Two reasons to be here

One problem. Two very different stakes.

The industry is deadlocked. Startups need investment or offtake before they can reach scale; corporates need proven scale before committing to either. Neither can move first alone. The group breaks that by making scale reachable without betting on one company, and offtake discussable before the volume exists.

If you buy

Manufacturers and ingredient buyers.

Your constraint is not capital. The ingredients you depend on come from a shrinking number of climate-exposed geographies, under tightening traceability rules, at prices you cannot forecast. The alternative supply is real but not yet at volume.

Shared scale-up and shared regulatory work compress the route to commercial supply from something like seven to ten years down to one to three.

The wall everybody hits

Your science works. Your balance sheet is the problem.

Every company in plant cell production is solving the same handful of scale-up problems, separately, at a cost none of them can carry alone. Most run out of money somewhere between the pilot and the plant.

1 m³

Where most programs stop. Not because the biology fails, but because the next vessel is a capital decision nobody can justify against a single product.

Months

And hundreds of thousands of dollars, spent before a single relevant run. Finding a contract manufacturer willing to take plant cells, then adapting your line to their fermenter, is a project in itself, and most companies pay for it more than once.

5×

What you overspend by building to pharmaceutical standards a food product never needed. It is the most expensive mistake available in this field.

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The part nobody says out loud

You could build it alone. It would just cost more and take longer.

Companies do raise money to build. The problem is what it buys: one facility, one configuration, chosen before anyone knows which wins, and years from anything commercially relevant. The slowest, most expensive way to learn whether your process holds at volume.

We found a way around it. Four decisions, all of them structural rather than clever.

01

Buy the steel, do not build it

The 2027 facility pairs a brownfield site, where building, utilities and permits already exist, with food-grade vessels bought from decommissioned plants and relocated. Nothing large is fabricated new. That is where most of the capital, and almost all of the waiting, comes out.

02

Split the cost across the cohort

No single member finances the facility. Each funds a share sized to the volume they need, so a startup carries a startup's portion and a corporate a corporate's. The plant gets built because a group each did something affordable, not because one did something reckless.

03

Reserve capacity, do not own steel

Members hold contracted capacity in the facility rather than an asset on the balance sheet. It is an operating commitment you can size, defer or grow into. Your investors are funding product and market, not a building.

04

Run now, not in 2027

Vessels up to 2,000 liters are already under contract and available at cost plus, with 6,000 liters in construction behind them. You do not wait years to find out whether your process holds at volume. You can book time this quarter.

You do not have to finance a plant to find out whether your process holds. Vessels are available now.

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Capacity

Tanks you can book, and a facility being built.

What's already on the ground

Up to 2,000 liters today.6,000 next.50,000 in 2027.

Not a plan to acquire capacity. Vessels up to 2,000 liters are contracted and schedulable from the day you sign, including dozens of 1,000 liter units running in parallel across every configuration that matters. Larger steel is in construction behind them.

500 L Single-use bioreactors Europe Available now
500 L Stainless steel Europe Available now
1,000 L Bubble column / airlift, single-use bioreactors, dozens of vessels United States Available now
2,000 L Bubble column / airlift and stirred-tank, stainless steel Europe Available now
6,000 L Bubble column / airlift, stainless steel United States In construction
50,000 L Relocated food-grade vessels on a brownfield site To be sited 2027

Where the 2027 facility will be

We are working a shortlist of brownfield sites in Latin America and India, decision expected shortly. Both put the facility next to low-cost sugar feedstock at operating costs well below a European or North American build, which is much of how the economics work. Vessels are sourced separately from decommissioned food-grade plants and relocated to the chosen site.

Food-grade fermentation plant, insulated process piping and instrumented valve arrays across multiple levels
Food-grade fermentation infrastructure of the kind being acquired. Vessels like these come from decommissioned plants and are relocated, not fabricated new.
Tank farm walkway between stainless steel vessels, with actuated valves and tagged control instrumentation
Tank farm and valve manifolds. Buying steel that already exists avoids both the price and the lead time of new fabrication.

Representative of one of the multiple options of tanks and plants under evaluation.

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So members pay cost plus

You pay what the run costs, not what the calendar costs.

Vessel time is billed at the actual operating cost of the campaign, media, labor, utilities and consumables, plus a defined margin to the site that hosts it. The costs are open to members.

The vessels are food-grade rather than pharmaceutical, so there is no sterility validation or cleanroom overhead buried in the rate. You pay for the tier your product actually needs.

Slow biology stops being a billing penalty. A four week campaign costs what four weeks of operation costs, and the economics of your product survive contact with the invoice.

How capacity in the 2027 facility is allocated

Three pools, published in advance, so nobody has to wonder whether the biggest member takes everything. Capacity is allocated to producing members.

60%

Early commitment. Divided in equal blocks among the members who commit capital before the facility is certain. Taking the risk early is what gets it built, and it is rewarded accordingly.

30%

Capital. Allocated pro rata to each member's contribution to the retrofit. Your share equals your contribution divided by the total raised.

10%

Open. Never locked up. Booked campaign by campaign at cost plus, available to any member whose needs change or who joins after the build.

Vessels up to 2,000 liters are bookable now, and sixty per cent of the 2027 facility is reserved for members who commit before it is certain.

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The program

What the group actually does together.

The agenda

Scale-up is the first challenge. It will not be the last.

Nothing matters until the tanks work, so that is where the group starts. But the same room and method apply to every constraint after it, and members decide what those are.

Joint studies

New work, jointly paid for. Not your data handed over.

The group funds engineering work at an independent research institution and at member sites, and every member gets the results. First up: one cell line across large stainless against modular single-use, bubble column against airlift against stirred-tank, batch against fed-batch against continuous.

2027

Scale-up. Getting member processes to commercially relevant volume and the 50,000 liter facility into production. Everything the group funds this year points at that.

2028

Set by members. Whatever the binding constraint has become once volume exists. Regulatory approval, route to market, product quality, or scale beyond the first facility.

Quarterly

Reset by vote. Working group priorities are agreed each quarter, so the agenda tracks what members are actually stuck on rather than what someone planned two years ago.

Areas already on the table for future cycles:

Offtake and supply agreements Regulatory approval pathways, GRAS, FDA and EFSA COGS reduction at constant product quality Co-development and formulation of new materials Quality, validation and compliance Go-to-market and market access Scale beyond the first facility Standards and comparability

A dossier written once and used by six companies costs a sixth as much as six written separately. The logic that makes scale-up worth sharing does not stop at the tank.

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The obvious question

You are not handing over your data.

This is a collaboration, not a data pool. Members contribute money, time and judgment to work the field's shared problems. Nothing proprietary leaves your building.

What stays yours

Everything. The consortium never asks for it.

  • Your process data and run records
  • Species, clone and cell line
  • Genetic modifications
  • Target molecule and titer
  • Customers and offtake agreements
  • Formulations and product specification

Allocations that go unscheduled 90 days ahead revert to the open pool for that quarter, so unused capacity never sits idle. Reviewed annually.

Working group priorities are set by member vote each quarter. Join before the next cycle is agreed and you help choose what gets tested.

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Membership

Who joins, and what it costs.

Who can join

Everybody in the room works with plant cells.

Membership is not open to anyone doing biomanufacturing. Every member either runs plant cell processes or builds for people who do, because plant cells are not microbes with a different name on the flask.

Days

Plant cells double in days, not hours. Campaign length, scheduling, utilization and cost per run all work differently, so microbial assumptions need rebuilding.

Clumps

They grow in aggregates that change size through a run. Keeping them suspended without over-shearing is a mixing and vessel design question, and every company answers it alone.

Media

Media descends from laboratory tissue culture, made to keep tissue alive on a plate, not to feed a tonne of biomass economically. Getting it to food-grade cost is the largest single lever anyone has.

We would rather have a few organizations that already understand this than a crowd that needs it explained. Applications are reviewed, and the question is not your size but whether plant cells are genuinely your problem.

The end market does not matter. The tank does.

Aggregation, shear, media cost and cycle frequency behave the same way whether the biomass becomes a food ingredient or a cosmetic active. Members work across every one of these.

Food ingredients Nutraceuticals Cosmetic actives Materials Flavours and fragrances Specialty chemicals

If plant cells are genuinely your problem, this is the room. Tell us what you are working on.

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Membership

A year of membership costs less than a month of building it yourself.

Your fee goes into the joint program and the 2027 facility, not into someone's overhead. Every member contributes, and every member owns a share of what that money produces.

Producing members

Run plant cell processes. Hold contracted capacity in the 2027 facility.

Early-stage startup

$25,000

per year · pre Series A, process at bench or small pilot scale

  • All four working groups
  • Results of every joint study
  • Vessel access at cost plus
  • Vote on technical scope

Late-stage startup

$50,000

per year · funded, process running at pilot scale

  • Everything in early stage
  • Priority campaign scheduling
  • Capacity option in the 2027 facility
  • Vote on technical scope
Closest to production

Commercial-ready startup

$100,000

per year · process qualified, moving to first commercial output

  • Everything in late stage
  • Contracted capacity in the 2027 facility
  • Seat on the facility investment committee
  • Input on the facility design basis

Corporate producer

$250,000

per year · corporates running their own plant cell processes

  • Contracted capacity in the 2027 facility
  • Priority scheduling at every member site
  • Input on the facility design basis
  • All four working groups and every joint study

If the fee is the only thing stopping you

A few in-kind places open each year to early-stage companies with a real plant cell process and no budget for a fee. Instead of cash you contribute work the group would otherwise pay for:

  • A named scientist or engineer in a working group for the year
  • Running an agreed piece of the joint study at your own bench or pilot scale
  • Analytical, modeling or engineering capability the group lacks

In-kind members get the knowledge side in full: all four working groups, every joint study result, and the meetings. They do not receive facility capacity or 2027 allocation, which are funded by the capital other members put in.

Places are limited, decided by the founding members and reviewed annually, and the expectation is that you move to a paying tier once you raise. Tell us what you would bring and we will say honestly whether it works.

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Supporting members

Do not hold capacity. Join as buyers, suppliers of equipment or services, independent capability or capital.

Corporate buyer

$250,000

per year · manufacturers and ingredient buyers. An offtake position, not a capacity one

  • Priority offtake from member producers
  • Early sight of products approaching commercial volume
  • All four working groups and every joint study
  • A direct line to the companies solving your supply problem

Equipment / service partner

$150,000

per year plus in-kind · vessel and equipment makers, engineering groups, analytical labs and service providers

  • Equipment or service qualified at consortium scale
  • Design input on the 2027 facility specification
  • Reference position with every member
  • Results of every joint study

Research partner

Pro bono

in-kind capability · universities and research institutions

  • No fee. Contribution is capability and people
  • Funded role in the joint program
  • Publication rights on non-proprietary findings
  • Access to member vessels for joint studies

Investor

By arrangement

venture and strategic investors, and financing partners for the 2027 facility

  • Contribution may be capital, financing or capability
  • Program summaries and the annual technical review
  • A route into financing the 2027 facility
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Facility capacity goes to producing members only. Corporate buyers take priority offtake instead, and equipment partners join as suppliers; neither sits on the investment committee, having commercial interest without production risk. Startup tiers are self-declared and reviewed annually. Every member holds a fixed first-year fee and a vote on technical scope. Investor terms are case by case.

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About

Who is behind this.

Founding members

Founded by GALY and Ayana Bio.

This is not a trade body looking for a subject. It was founded by two companies that run plant cell processes themselves and concluded the fastest route to commercial volume is a shared one.

Ayana Bio

Founding member

Spun out of Ginkgo Bioworks in 2021 and based in Boston, Ayana Bio grows botanical bioactives in bioreactors instead of fields. It raised a $30 million Series A led by Viking Global Investors and Cascade Investment Group, and was first to market with plant cell cultivated lemon balm and echinacea. It also works across saffron, cacao, holy basil, sage and blueberry.

Its case is the one this group exists to solve. Botanical supply chains are exposed to climate, adulteration and unforecastable prices, and plant cells answer that only at a price the category will bear. Ayana Bio brings product already in market and hard won experience of the step from bench to production.

The next vessel does not have to be yours.

We admit members on an ongoing basis. Terms are fixed for one year from signature with no multi-year lock-in. Tell us what you are making and what volume you need, and we will tell you whether this fits.

I want to join
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Questions

Straight answers to what people ask first.

If yours is not here, the form goes to a person, not a queue.

Before you ask

The questions everybody asks first

We are too small to commit to a facility. Can we still join?

Yes. The early-stage tier is $25,000, with no capacity commitment and no minimum size of process, and still includes all four working groups, every joint study result and vessel access at cost plus. You move up at renewal as you grow. If that is out of reach, a few in-kind places each year go to companies contributing work instead of cash.

Do we have to share our process data?

No. No reporting obligation, no shared database, and nobody hands over process records, cell lines or product data. We do ask that you bring your experience to the working groups, so the group is not paying to rediscover what a member already knows. Know-how offered freely is not data surrendered contractually, and only the first is expected.

What do we actually have to contribute?

Your fee, your people, and your experience. The point is that nobody re-runs an experiment somebody else already ran, so members turn up and share what they have learned. If contributing know-how to help the industry is not something you want to do, this is not the right room for you. Hosting a campaign at your site is optional and reimbursed at cost plus.

We do microbial fermentation. Can we join?

Not on that basis alone. Plant cells have to be genuinely your problem, whether you run the processes or supply the equipment and engineering behind them. Plant cells grow in days not hours, in aggregates not free suspension, and the product is often the biomass itself. A group translating every discussion back to yeast spends its time translating instead of solving.

Is a consortium of competitors legal?

Pre-competitive collaboration is well established in industrial biotechnology, but the scope has to be drawn carefully. The consortium charter is reviewed under EU and US competition law, and the agenda excludes pricing, customers, market allocation and output decisions. Technical scope only.

Why should we believe the 2027 date?

Because almost nothing is built from scratch. The site is brownfield, so building, utilities and permits exist. Vessels are bought from decommissioned food-grade plants and relocated, skipping the fabrication queue that usually dominates such a schedule. Installation, piping and qualification remain substantial, but a fraction of building the same capacity. There is risk and we will not pretend otherwise. Shared capital, engineering and capacity exist to make the date more likely, not less.

Still have a question? Ask it directly, and we will answer honestly, including when the answer is that we do not know yet.

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