South Africa’s Immobazyme, a precision fermentation company, has raised $1.3 million in a recent investment round.

The round was led by the University Technology Fund (UTF) with participation from Innovus, a University of Stellenbosch Enterprise –Immobazyme is a spin-off from South Africa’s Stellenbosch University.

Immobazyme develops high-value proteins for various industries, including cell-based meat and alt-dairy. The capital will support the company’s expansion, including doubling its current facility size and scaling its platform.

The company has developed PepTrap, a novel enzyme immobilisation platform that enables the integration of high-efficiency biocatalysts throughout a range of industrial environments.

This platform enhances the native capabilities of the enzyme by improving its stability and overall efficiency. The PepTrap technology can be integrated into small-scale laboratory settings and larger-scale industrial pipelines. This is achieved through its modular design, allowing the system to work in both fixed and rotating bed reactors.

Immobazyme has also developed a modular protein expression system that enables the production of food-grade versions of growth factors. The system provides a cost-effective and efficient solution for producing high-quality growth factors, making them more accessible to the industries that need them.

In a statement on social media, the firm said: “We are happy to share that Immobazyme has successfully secured our next round of funding, bringing our total investment raised to date to ZAR 24.5 million [approx. $1.35 million]. This will directly support our expansion, doubling the size of our facility and rapidly scaling up our production capabilities.”

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