Four plan biotechnology platform

American start-up DMC Biotechnologies, which develops and produces chemicals and ingredients using precision fermentation, has agreed to create the ‘Biotech Open Platform’ in partnership with French industrial giants Danone and Michelin, and the investment bank Crédit Agricole. The first-phase investment is over €16 million.

It will seek to develop large-scale fermentation processes to produce biobased materials and ingredients, particularly precision fermentation using microorganisms to produce proteins, enzymes and other molecules. This is also being supported by multiple public and private institutions.

By 2025, the project plans to install an initial demonstration-scale production line, including a fermenter and purification equipment. Additional equipment will be installed in the following years, including a second production line, to meet the founders’ scale-up needs gradually open it up to other companies.

The platform will be based within the Centre for Sustainable Materials at Parc Cataroux in Clermont-Ferrand, central France Located next to a Michelin site, the centre is described as “the only regeneration project of its kind in Europe dedicated to innovation in all its forms”. Its stated aim is “to develop circular supply chains with controlled impact in the field of bio-sourced or recycled materials”