Why We Invested: Izote Biosciences
We're thrilled to announce our investment in Izote Biosciences, a synthetic biology company pioneering oxygen-free fermentation technology. At Redstick, we back founders with the vision and execution to transform how food is produced, processed, and distributed. Izote sits at the intersection of revolutionary science and practical application — exactly where we love to invest.
The Challenge: Biomanufacturing's Unsolved Economics
Biomanufacturing stands at the threshold of transforming industries worth over $3 trillion globally. From alternative proteins to specialty chemicals, the potential is staggering — yet one fundamental challenge has stunted progress.
Current aerobic fermentation methods are economically untenable:
Scale-up takes 5-10 years and costs $100-500 million
Manufacturing capacity lags demand by roughly 1000x
Gross margins rarely exceed 20% outside of pharmaceuticals
This economic reality has hamstrung industries like alternative proteins for years. The culprit? Oxygen — which drives the majority of cost and complexity in traditional fermentation processes.
The Solution: Breathing Life Into Biomanufacturing Without Oxygen
Izote's breakthrough approach is elegantly simple yet profoundly impactful: they've engineered microbial strains that thrive without oxygen, fundamentally rewriting the economics of biomanufacturing.
By eliminating the need for oxygen injection and agitation, Izote delivers transformative advantages:
Removes the need for complex tank aeration
Dramatically lowers energy usage
Simplifies equipment design
Improves overall productivity
Enables continuous rather than batch processing
Breaks through the 500,000-liter tank limitation of aerobic fermentation
The results are staggering: over 50% reduction in manufacturing costs, 300-500% increase in productivity, and scale-up timelines cut in half. These aren't incremental improvements — they're the foundation for an entirely new approach to bioproduction.
Why Victor and the Team Are the Ones to Get It Done
Izote brings together a founding team with complementary strengths and deep domain expertise.
Victor Manuel Reyes-Umaña (CEO & CTO) is one of the world's leaders in fermentation design, bringing over a decade of experience from Genentech and Dupont. He spun Izote out of UC Berkeley's renowned Coates Microbiology Lab, where he developed the core technology during his PhD research.
The team is further strengthened by senior talent:
Javier Santana, Director of Bioprocess Engineering, brings production process design experience from Eastman Chemical Company and Air Liquide
Laure Curran, PhD, Director of Metabolic Engineering, oversees the metabolic engineering team at Izote. She was a former researcher at the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Emeryville, CA and a graduate from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, with experience at startups around the Bay Area such as Huue.
Their advisor bench is equally impressive, with UC Berkeley professor Dr. John Coates, Zymergen founder Jed Dean, and Sam Atwood providing strategic guidance. Charles Dimmler, an independent board member, brings invaluable industry expertise as the former CEO of Checkerspot. From 2016 to 2024, Charles grew Checkerspot to approximately 100 employees with over 130% compound annual revenue growth from 2020 to 2024. The company launched a portfolio of products based on biomanufactured oils sold into a range of applications in the industrial materials, food, nutrition and personal care ingredient markets. Prior to Checkerspot, Charles served as SVP of Corporate Development at Solazyme (Nasdaq: SZYM), where he led financings and strategic transactions totaling over $680 million, including a $220 million IPO. Earlier in his career, Charles held corporate development roles at Geron Corporation (Nasdaq: GERN) and began his career as an investment banker at Solomon Partners. Charles earned his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and his BA in History from Columbia University.
This blend of scientific innovation, industry experience, and entrepreneurial energy creates a powerful foundation for success.
Why Now Is the Time for Oxygen-Free Fermentation
The timing for Izote's innovation couldn't be better. Three critical trends are converging:
Economic reality check: The industry now recognizes that products made at high cost in labs can't scale to commodity prices. This realization has created urgent demand for transformative approaches like Izote's.
Growing market opportunity: Synthetic biology and biomanufacturing are expected to replace 60% of products currently made using fossil fuels — a $3 trillion market. The synbio market for food alone now equals biopharma at $1.2 trillion, with specialty chemicals close behind at $950 billion.
Policy tailwinds: Government focus on biomanufacturing has intensified, driven by decarbonization imperatives and supply chain security concerns.
These market and policy shifts create the perfect environment for Izote's technology to drive long-awaited breakthroughs in biomanufacturing economics.
The Competitive Edge Built to Last
Izote has built remarkable defensibility around their innovation:
Intellectual Property: Their patent application (exclusively licensed from UC Berkeley) covers their core metabolic pathway and bioprocessing system for any microbial strain using this system — creating a formidable barrier to competitors.
Unique Technical Know-How: Even without patent protection, Izote has the only scientists in the world who deeply understand this unique cellular metabolism after studying it for over five years. These trade secrets put them years ahead of any team attempting to replicate the technology.
Continuous Innovation: The team continues developing additional IP for related processes, strengthening their competitive moat and creating multiple layers of defensibility.
Looking Ahead: From Lab Bench to Global Impact
Izote has already demonstrated their technology with green fluorescent protein production, including novel metabolism and over 100 hours of continuous fermentation. They're now acquiring bench-scale bioreactors and seeking manufacturing partners for trials.
Their scale-up roadmap is ambitious yet achievable:
Pilot scale (1,000-5,000 liters) within 3 years, by 2026
Production scale by 2028
What's especially exciting is how their approach requires fewer intermediate steps than traditional fermentation — their processes are more predictable at smaller scales, allowing for more confident and rapid scaling.
Why We're Excited
At Redstick, we invest at the intersection of food, technology, and infrastructure. Izote epitomizes this focus with a platform technology that could radically transform multiple industries, from alternative proteins to specialty chemicals.
The food system is under immense pressure, and Izote's technology addresses several critical challenges:
Reducing energy consumption in food production
Enabling more cost-effective production of sustainable ingredients
Creating pathways to replace fossil fuel-derived products with bio-based alternatives
We believe Izote represents the future of biomanufacturing — one where breakthrough science meets practical economics to create solutions that are both sustainable and scalable.
We're proud to partner with Victor and the entire Izote team on their journey to revolutionize how we produce the materials that make modern life possible. This is exactly the kind of bold, founder-led innovation we built Redstick to support.
If you're building in the synthetic biology space or interested in learning more about Izote Biosciences, we'd love to hear from you.
— Shane Larisey & Cam Crowder
Co-Founders of Redstick
