2026 is the year of industrialization: precision fermentation is ready for commodity-scale production. That is, if you have access to the right technology.
At Future Food-Tech, our colleagues Barbara Taudorf Andersen and Henrik M. Geertz-Hansen heard it again and again: the industry is entering a new phase.
Because while food has traditionally relied on fully integrated value chains, this model doesn’t translate to precision fermentation.
Here, no single player can lead across the entire value chain. Partnerships between leaders in each part of the value chain are needed to get to industrial production of protein. And that shift is starting to land – with technology and food companies – and not least the investor landscape.
We increasingly see start-ups and their investors easing into this new reality. Success isn’t about building everything in-house, it’s about starting with the right workhorse: strain technology that can deliver both high quality and cost-relevant production.
Many even start making that choice from day one, partnering early between technology and application companies to secure a faster route to market – by years – and a far more capital-efficient path to scale.
That’s where 21st.BIO comes in. We are the enabler, offering technology that can help industrials and start-ups focus on what they do best: getting their products to market.
