RCS - Agronomics Limited - Portfolio Company Update: Onego Bio

AgronomicsAnnouncement

21/09/2022 07:00

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RNS Number : 0587A  Agronomics Limited  21 September 2022

21(st) September 2022

 

Agronomics Limited (https://agronomics.im/)

("Agronomics" or the "Company")

 Portfolio Company Onego Bio Announces Partnership with Perfect Day

 

Agronomics (AIM:ANIC), the leading listed company focused on the field of
cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce that portfolio company Onego Bio
Ltd ("Onego Bio"), a company developing sustainable and animal free egg
proteins via precision fermentation, has entered into a partnership with
Perfect Day, Inc. ("Perfect Day"), the leader in production of dairy proteins
also via precision fermentation, through Perfect Day's latest enterprise
biology business nth Bio. Onego Bio utilises the same efficient microflora
platform as Perfect Day, but for production of egg white proteins, beginning
with its first product Bioalbumen™. This partnership will allow Onego Bio to
access Perfect Day's expertise in strain engineering, bioprocess development,
regulatory support, and process services, accelerating the scale up and
commercialisation of their animal-free egg white proteins.

 

Agronomics holds 340,237 shares in Onego Bio, representing an equity ownership
of 19.94% on a fully diluted basis following its investment in February 2022
(https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/agronomics/news/rns/story/wkn70dw) .
Agronomics currently carries this position in its accounts at cost
of EUR 6.9M. Based on the last unaudited Net Asset Value ("NAV") as at 30
June 2022, the Onego Bio position represents 4.1% of NAV.

 

The full announcement is set out below without any material changes:

 

Perfect Day Deepens Investment in Enterprise Biology Business with New Brand
Identity, nth Bio, and Announces Partnership with Onego Bio

Company unveils enterprise biology partnership with Onego Bio, to accelerate
scaling of animal-free egg white protein production

 

SALT LAKE CITY (SEPTEMBER 20, 2022) - Today, global biotechnology leader
Perfect Day announces the new brand identity of its enterprise biology
business - nth Bio - and its first publicly-announced partner, Onego Bio, Ltd.
(https://www.onego.bio/) Following the announcement
(https://perfectday.com/newsroom/biotechnology-leader-perfect-day-to-debut-second-u-s-location-and-new-enterprise-biology-hub-in-salt-lake-city/)
of its enterprise biology hub and second U.S. base in Salt Lake City earlier
this year, Perfect Day has formalized the vision for its newest area of impact
under the nth Bio brand. nth offers the company's expertise and technology
services to companies across the globe who share its kinder, greener mission
and empowers them to extend their impact into new areas of the food system and
beyond.

 

nth has been working largely behind-the-scenes for the past two years to
deliver scale-up production, IP licensing, strain engineering services, and
other solutions to a diverse range of precision fermentation,
biopharmaceutical, and life sciences customers. nth is the only enterprise
biology company in the world that offers end-to-end expertise and services
from the earliest stages of molecular development to commercial-scale
manufacturing, and the many steps in-between.

 

In addition to debuting the nth Bio brand, the company is excited to be able
to publicly share its work with partner Onego Bio as a hallmark example of
what it stands to achieve through this work. Onego Bio aims to use a
breakthrough technology to commercialize animal-free ovalbumin, the most
abundant egg white protein, with precision fermentation. Global egg production
has almost doubled its volume during the past 20 years and is forecasted to
reach 138 million tons by 2030. The Onego Bio team stands to meet that demand
in a way that preserves the future of our planet. nth has accelerated the
timeline for turning this vision into a reality by offering its strain
engineering, bioprocess development, regulatory support, and scale up process
services.

 

"The name nth Bio comes from the exponential impact we stand to have by
bringing others along on our journey. It's our commitment to creating a
kinder, greener tomorrow through collaboration - taken to the nth degree. We
look forward to continuing this work from our Salt Lake City base, supporting
innovative, mission-aligned companies with nth and extending our impact into
new industries," said Ryan Pandya, Perfect Day co-founder and CEO. "Onego Bio
is a serious, new player in the field, with top-notch technology skills and
world class experts that share our kinder, greener mission. We believe their
animal-free egg white products will play a significant role in transforming
our food chain," he added.

 

Onego Bio is a spin-off from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland that has
been developing and researching precision fermentation technology for the past
several years. The technology is based on the same efficient microflora
platform that is used by Perfect Day to produce animal-free milk proteins.
Onego Bio aims to launch its first product Bioalbumen™ in the U.S. as a food
ingredient for the bakery and confectionary industry-as well as a protein
supplement for fitness products-and later enter the consumer market with its
own branded products for baking and cooking.

 

"We are thrilled to announce the partnership with nth Bio. Perfect Day has
been an enormous trailblazer in the global animal-free protein business,
gaining GRAS status in the United States, and successfully communicating the
no-compromise impact potential that its technology empowers to a larger
audience. We are excited to have the opportunity to work with Perfect Day to
follow in their footsteps with our own Onego Bio products," said Maija
Itkonen, CEO of Onego Bio.

 

This global partnership and the work of nth underscore Perfect Day's deep
commitment to impact through collaboration. As the first company to bring
nature-identical, animal-free proteins to market at scale, Perfect Day has
unmatched expertise and potential for impact, which it can't maximize alone.
By giving access to essential tools and infrastructure, nth allows partners
like Onego to accelerate the things our world needs to move in a more
sustainable direction. The best way to change the world for the better is to
work with others to create broader impact. The potential is exponential.

 

Scaling this newest part of Perfect Day's business augments the impact of the
company's ongoing work bringing animal-free products to consumers via its B2B
ingredient partners and consumer brands under The Urgent Company. Perfect Day
has already produced more animal-free whey protein in the first half of this
year than it did in all of 2021 and has unlocked the capacity to produce
thousands of metric tons starting next year through its four commercial-scale
facilities around the world. Consumers can find kinder, greener products made
with Perfect Day's first ingredient, animal-free whey protein, across six
categories in three countries.

 

About nth Bio

nth Bio by Perfect Day is empowering a new generation of bioengineers to shape
the world they envision. As an incubator for ideas that foster rapid fruition,
nth offers enterprise biology services to allow its partners to grow their
projects from beginning to end. We provide the perspective, knowledge, and
experience to scale and nurture ideas systemically. Because progress doesn't
happen in a silo, it happens as a system.

 

nth Bio is pioneering a new field of biology applications to extend Perfect
Day's impact into new areas beyond what they could do alone. nth brings the
company's unparalleled expertise to offer services from strain engineering to
piloting to full-scale production, and everything in-between-and is the only
enterprise biology company that can offer services anywhere on that journey.
By sharing their expertise with other innovators, nth is accelerating the path
to a kinder, greener tomorrow.

 

About Onego Bio Ltd

Onego Bio Ltd is a game-changing biotech company producing animal-free egg
proteins with precision fermentation. When implemented in full scale, this new
production method provides significant benefits to the environment, food
security, as well as animal welfare. The team believes the chosen technology
is superior because of its efficiency and productivity. Based on the
anticipatory LCA published in Nature Food
(https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00418-2) , the technology shows
potential to significantly reduce most agriculture-associated impacts, such as
global warming and land use.

 

Egg is one of the world's most used animal proteins and difficult to replace
with alternative ingredients. Onego Bio will make it possible to manufacture
the same delicious foods entirely animal-free. Company aims to launch its
first product Bioalbumen™ as a food ingredient for food industry and later
enter the consumer market with its own branded products for baking and
cooking. Bioalbumen provides the nutritional and functional upsides of egg
white, without the environmental, ethical and safety-related concerns.

 

Founded in 2022 by Maija Itkonen (CEO), Christopher Landowski (CTO) and Jussi
Joensuu (COO), Onego Bio is a VTT spin-off that salutes the remarkable work
done by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland for the next level cell ag
products and applications. Onego Bio's mission is to rethink eggs and give
people access to sustainable, delicious and healthy animal-free food. Learn
more at www.onego.bio (http://www.onego.bio/) and follow our journey in
LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/onego-bio/) , Twitter
(https://twitter.com/onego_bio) and Instagram
(https://www.instagram.com/onego_bio/) .

About Perfect Day, Inc.

Founded in 2014 by Ryan Pandya and Perumal Gandhi, Perfect Day is on a mission
to create a kinder, greener tomorrow through the harmony of science and
nature. Leveraging expertise across biology, food innovation, and consumer
products, Perfect Day supports companies in developing, scaling, and
commercializing next-generation products that satisfy market demands and
champion a path toward a sustainable future.

The company's flagship product, the world's first precision-fermented protein,
debuted in 2020 and today can be found in animal-free ice creams, cream
cheese, baked goods, and sports nutrition products across the U.S., Hong Kong,
and Singapore. Instead of relying on cows, Perfect Day utilizes microflora to
create proprietary animal-free milk protein. Perfect Day's protein can be used
across a range of products to deliver the same taste and texture while
supporting the planet. An ISO compliant, third-party reviewed life cycle
assessment (LCA) found that Perfect Day's whey protein reduces blue water
consumption by up to 99%, greenhouse gas emissions by up to 97%, and
non-renewable energy use by up to 60%, when compared to conventional
production methods.

To learn more, visit perfectday.com (https://perfectday.com/) or follow along
on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/perfectdayfoods/) , Twitter
(https://twitter.com/PerfectDayFoods) , Instagram
(https://www.instagram.com/perfectdayfoods/) , and LinkedIn
(https://www.linkedin.com/company/perfect-day-inc/) .

 

About Agronomics (https://agronomics.im/)

Agronomics is a leading listed alternative proteins company with a focus on
cellular agriculture and cultivated meat. The Company has established a
portfolio of 24 companies at the Pre-Seed to Series C stage in this rapidly
advancing sector. It seeks to secure minority stakes in companies owning
technologies with defensible intellectual property that offer new ways of
producing food and materials with a focus on products historically derived
from animals. These technologies are driving a major disruption in
agriculture, offering solutions to improve sustainability, as well as
addressing human health, animal welfare and environmental damage. This
disruption will decouple supply chains from the environment and animals, as
well as being fundamental to feeding the world's expanding population. A full
list of Agronomics' portfolio companies is available
at https://agronomics.im/
(https://clicktime.symantec.com/368cVqxx3R6vTFuHpf6MSE66Gi?u=https%3A%2F%2Fagronomics.im%2F)
.

 

About Cellular Agriculture

Cellular Agriculture is the production of agriculture products directly from
cells, as opposed to raising an animal for slaughter, or growing crops. This
encompasses cell culture to produce cultivated meat and materials, and
fermentation processes that harness a combination of molecular biology,
synthetic biology, tissue engineering and biotechnology to massively simplify
production methods in a sustainable manner.

 

Over the coming decades, the source of the world's food supply traditionally
derived from conventional agriculture is going to change dramatically. We have
already witnessed the first wave of this shift with the consumer adoption of
plant-based alternative proteins but today, we are on the cusp of an even
bigger wave of change. This is being facilitated by advances in cellular
agriculture. This change is necessary, given scientists claims that if we
maintain existing animal protein consumption patterns, then we will not meet
the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to 1.5℃

 

AT Kearney, a global consultancy firm, projects that cultivated meat's market
share will reach 35% by 2040. This combined with the Good Food
Institute's estimate that a US $1.8 trillion investment will be required in
order to produce just 10% of the world's protein using this technology, means
that we are on the cusp of a multi-decade flow of capital to build out
manufacturing facilities. Funding in the field of cellular agriculture is
accelerating, however still less than US$ 4 billion has been invested
worldwide since the industry's inception in 2016.

 

For further information please contact:

 

 Agronomics Limited                               Beaumont Cornish Limited  Canaccord Genuity Limited        Cenkos  Securities Plc   Peterhouse Capital Limited  TB Cardew
 The Company                                      Nomad                     Joint Broker                     Joint Broker             Joint Broker                Public Relations
 Richard Reed                                     Roland Cornish            Andrew Potts                     Giles Balleny            Lucy Williams               Ed Orlebar

 Denham Eke                                       James Biddle              Harry Rees                       Max Gould                Charles Goodfellow          Alistair Walker

                                                                            Alex Aylen (Head of Equities)    Michael Johnson
 +44 (0) 1624 639396                              +44 (0) 207 628 3396      +44 (0) 207 523 8000             +44 (0) 207 397 8900     +44 (0) 207 469 0936        +44 (0) 20 7930 0777

 info@agronomics.im (mailto:info@agronomics.im)                                                                                                                   +44 (0) 7738 724 630

                                                                                                                                                                  agronomics@tbcardew.com (mailto:agronomics@tbcardew.com)

 

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