Pressure from consumers and regulators is increasing demand for greener products that use biological processes and genetically modified microorganisms in place of traditional production methods.As a result, the market for biomanufacturing ingredients in just three industries—specialty chemicals, food, and chemical precursors—could reach $200 billion by 2040, according to Boston Consulting Group. But first corporate customers—which need to meet sustainability and Net Zero pledges—must commit to offtake agreements for future delivery of new ingredients and adapt their supply chains and product formulations.
That is where Synonym comes in. It is helping develop the biomanufacturing infrastructure needed to kickstart the bioeconomy.
CEO Edward Shenderovich, a serial entrepreneur, and Joshua Lachter started the New York City-based scale-up in January 2022 to develop, finance and build commercial-scale bio-manufacturing facilities to provide synthetic biology producers of all size with flexible production capacity while also giving infrastructure investors access to a new, carbon-negative bio-manufacturing asset class.
“We work with companies to develop, finance, construct, and operate dedicated, modular fermentation facilities more cost effectively than any other option,” says Shenderovich. “Some of the largest companies in the world in industries like packaged foods and apparel are using our platform to do techno economic analysis of products they may want to include in their supply chain,” he says. “We help them with questions like ‘Does the tech scale? What are the limiting factors? Can this product be economically manufactured?’ We do the number crunching and then tap into our network to help test and scale production.”
In addition to apparel, Synonym is currently focusing on the health, beauty and food sectors.
Building The Bioeconomy
The bioeconomy utilizes renewable biological resources such as plants, animals and microorganisms to produce food, energy and industrial goods. Proponents say its benefits are functionally superior products that are free of toxins as well as supply chain assurance. “With an operating system that runs on biology at its core, the tech-driven bioeconomy represents one of the most significant opportunities of the century,” the World Economic Forum said in a 2024 report.
To date a significant proportion of the synthetic biology market has been focused on the life sciences/ healthcare sector. Novo Nordisk, for example, a global healthcare company based in Denmark that leverages synthetic biology, has experienced extraordinary growth and is one of the most valuable companies in Europe.
Now, advances in AI are enabling new biosolutions to be simulated, scaled and reproduced – at reduced cost and in lesser time – across a range of new applications, a change that will prompt companies in every sector to change the way things are made. “Every company that uses materials will ultimately need to reformulate,” says Shenderovich. “If they are not reformulating now, they will.”
But commercializing a bioproduct is costly and complex. There has been great progress in the lab, with the development of new molecules and genetic strains. The big barrier to broader adoption so far has been biomanufacturing costs, according to a 2024 Boston Consulting Group report compiled with Synonym. Precision fermentation and biomanufacturing have not yet proved to be economically viable at commercial scale in most industries. (The pharmaceutical industry which builds its business models around high-margin, low-volume products with low sensitivity to cost and a few other product categories are exceptions.)
Biofoundries—facilities that are designed, built, optimized, and standardized for efficient and economic production of nonpharmaceutical bioproducts- aim to change the equation. Each such facility can provide at least two million liters of capacity, achieving commercial economics and bridging the cost gap for large production categories such as food and biomaterials by reducing unit costs by 50%, enabling some cost parity with incumbent technologies, according to the BCG report.
More advanced facilities, along with improved strains, could reduce production costs by up to 90%, achieving or surpassing price parity with current incumbent methods for most products.
Next-generation facilities do not yet have a track record, and they require upfront capital investment of $300 million to $400 million each, depending on exact specifications. The stages of design and construction take three to five years to complete, at least for the first facilities, says the BCG report. These factors make raising capital difficult without committed demand.
Synonym says it has designed a highly standardized facility for which 80% to 90% of the capex goes to facility elements that are applicable across many precision-fermented products. Only 10% to 20% is for molecule-specific equipment. As a result, investors and funds that specialize in infrastructure investments can approach biofoundries as a single asset class in which each project has very similar specifications and requirements.
Synonym’s digital platform connects the relevant players. It helps companies create a roadmap that defines key commercial, technical and environmental benchmarks and milestones including scoping biomanufacturing capacity needs before development. Then it helps them find and access available production sites through a new production placement network launched earlier this month.
The new service – called Match – combines Synonym’s expertise in biological process commercialization and contract manufacturing with up-to-date contract manufacturer operator (CMO) data to help companies discover their best-fit manufacturing set-up.
Match leverages Capacitor, Synonym’s proprietary CMO database, which includes more than 280 facilities in over 40 countries. Its dataset includes key details such as tank quantity and capacities, manufacturing grades, certifications, product expertise, and demand side platform unit operations. The company says it leverages Capacitor and its Synonym Production Network – a unique group of vetted CMOs – to assess facilities from all over the world, ranging from tolling CMOs to non-traditional sites that have available capacity. It then identifies the most promising production options and shares a shortlist. After narrowing the scope and charting a pathway to production, Synonym collects quotes on its clients’ behalf. The entire process typically takes six to eight weeks.
The company has raised $15 million to date. Backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Giant Ventures, GS Ventures, and In-Q-Tel.
Synonym’s primary challenge is the overall nascency in demand for bioproducts, says Lachter. Most large companies – and many of their consumers – have never heard of bioproducts and understand little of how bioproducts would improve their overall products. Bioproducts have yet to achieve their “ChatGPT” moment, he says, when their value becomes real to the average consumer.
In August of last year Synonym, was awarded $1.89 million by the U.S.’s Department of Defense as part of its Distributed Bioindustrial Manufacturing Program (DBIMP). The funding aims to strengthen the domestic supply of essential materials and ingredients by advancing biomanufacturing infrastructure across the United States. Synonym says the DBIMP award supports its plans to build a new facility or rehabilitate an underutilized precision fermentation facility to domestically produce products critical to US supply chains. Pre-development activities have begun, and it plans to formally break ground this Spring. While much of its development efforts have focused on the US, Synonym just became a member of the EuropaBio coalition and says it is actively exploring development opportunities in Europe.
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