Mycofeast acquires Daisy Lab, boosting precision-fermented dairy capabilities

NEW ZEALAND – Mycofeast, a Biotechnology company, has announced the acquisition of New Zealand-based precision fermentation start-up Daisy Lab.

One of Daisy Lab’s key focus is lactoferrin, a high-value milk protein with applications across various specialised nutrition and health categories, while it has also developed wider capabilities in recombinant dairy proteins

The deal, the financial terms of which were not disclosed, aligns with Mycofeast’s strategy to integrate capabilities that can help address the fragmentation between scientific discovery, strain and process development, industrial manufacturing and access to market.

Witek Hruzewicz, Mycofeast’s CEO, said: “The sector has no shortage of exceptional science. The harder problem is connecting that science with process development, industrial manufacturing, capital and commercial markets quickly enough – and with economics that actually work.”

“Daisy Lab brings a strong dairy protein platform, proven scale-up capability and a talented New Zealand team into that system. It is highly complementary to what we are building.”

Daisy Lab has progressed its technology platform from lab development to 500-litre fermentation while building in-house expertise across molecular biology, fermentation, downstream processing and scale-up.

Mycofeast was founded in 2023 and is headquartered in Oxford, UK, with a biotechnology facility in California, US, and 16-million-litre fermentation plant in Poland.

The company’s portfolio includes carotenoids, dairy proteins and other biologically produced ingredients and compounds, powered by its innovation engine Evolutia Bio.

The platform combines AI discovery, high-throughput screening and genetic engineering capabilities, with capabilities in strain development, biosynthesis, enzyme design, fermentation scale-up and industrial production.

The deal will enable Mycofeast to expand into the Asia-Pacific market, while for Daisy Lab, the deal allows it to move beyond the limitations of a standalone start-up model, the company’s co-founder and CEO, Irina Miller, said.

“Mycofeast gives us access to a much broader scientific, manufacturing and commercial platform while allowing the expertise developed by the Daisy Lab team to contribute across a much larger organisation,” Miller added.

Daisy Lab’s founders will take on roles within the wider Mycofeast group, extending their involvement beyond the New Zealand business and contributing to broader development.

The group will continue to develop its lactoferrin programme, working closely with the Evolutia Bio R&D team in California and Mycofeast’s wider engineering, commercial, and manufacturing operations.

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