September 20, 2024

 

Seed funding of $7 million secured by Australia-based Number 8 Bio which creates methane-reducing feed

 

Australia-based startup Number 8 Bio has secured $7 million in seed funding to drive its mission to develop methane-reducing livestock feed.

 

The funding round was led by Main Sequence, the CSIRO-founded deep tech fund that participated in last year's $1.8 million pre-seed round. The March Group and Breakthrough Victoria also contributed in the latest raise, with the latter investing $1.7 million.

 

Number 8 Bio is one of several Australian biotech startups dedicated to reducing the volume of methane produced by ruminant livestock including cows, sheep, and goats. Unlike other companies, it is taking a different approach: bio-engineering strains of yeast, which can be mass fermented in scalable operations.

 

The startup is also focused on "performance digestion", and hopes to provide farmers with feed additives capable of increasing beef, lamb, and wool production while reducing emissions.

 

Speaking to SmartCompany, Number 8 Bio chief executive officer and co-founder Dr. Tom Williams said the startup stands out for its two-fold offerings.

 

"In contrast to other companies in this space, we have a dual approach, where we shut off the emissions and have other components to the product that control the flow of nutrition towards the animal to give the farmer the boost that they need," he said.

 

The process is scalable, Dr. Williams added, and not reliant on cutting-edge precision fermentation to cultivate the feed additives.

 

"We currently have equipment in our Sydney warehouse capable of making 30,000 doses a day, and it's not particularly large," he said. "We're very scalable, and don't rely on precision fermentation anymore."

 

The venture is deep into trials, testing more than 3,000 product variants within the past 12 months. The process has allowed Number 8 Bio to "cut things out that didn't work, and retain things that have worked," Dr. Williams said.

 

"And we're close to settling on a few product variants that we'll take forward commercially at the end of this year," he added.

 

The funding will be used to complete those trials, establish manufacturing capacity while building out its Sydney site, and establish relationships with early adopters.

 

While the startup has global ambitions, Number 8 Bio also plans to collaborate with Agriculture Victoria on further trials at the Ellinbank SmartFarm dairy research facility and conduct research in partnership with Monash University.

 

A proposed manufacturing site in regional Australia by 2026 could help create eight new full-time jobs.

 

- Smart Company