By Moji Karimi, CEO, Cemvita Factory
Special to The Digest
1. Product or platform?
A) Product: develop the microbe, build the plant, and sell the product. The end molecule is the revenue source
B) Platform: develop the microbe and commercialize it through partnerships. The microbe is the revenue source
2. What molecules to develop?
A) Specialty: high value, low volume
B) Commodity: high volume, low value
3. What market to serve?
A) Target verticals with SynBio capability or familiarity
B) Target verticals that may not have SynBio capability or familiarity
These answers land a company somewhere on this spectrum:
It’s not that one quadrant is better than the other. It’s just about where the focus is for a given company and how they are optimizing for technology and market risk vs. their long-term ambitions for scaling up the company. So far, most of the de-risking and existing data comes from Q3, the product focus and specialty molecules (with the exception of biofuels which belong to Q4). In the past decade, startups like Ginkgo Bioworks and Zymergen have paved the way for Q1 and Genomatica, LanzaTech and Solugen are showing what’s possible in Q4. That leaves us with Q2, which is largely unexplored, not much of a surprise as it’s really hard. Biomanufacturing scale up is always hard but Q2 has an additional complication, as it is focused on target verticals that don’t traditionally have SynBio capability or familiarity. Some examples are petrochemical companies that now want to explore biomanufacturing, mining companies that now want to explore bioremediation, or oil and gas companies that are exploring microbially enhanced oil recovery. With exception of a few companies, the heavy industries in Q2 have always viewed SynBio as a tool that’s out there with niche applications but not as a disruptive force that can be integrated with their business. Since this SynBio infrastructure is lacking, a typical approach for developing the microbe and licensing it to heavy industries in Q2 won’t work the same way as for Q1 clients.