Through its Swiss affiliate, Danstar Ferment, Lallemand has completed an equity investment in Livzym Biotechnologies.

Livzym is Turkey's ‘first and only’ domestic industrial enzyme producer. Over the last nine years, the firm has successfully developed a range of enzymes for food and animal feed applications based on its fungi-based technology platform.

The investment from Lallemand, alongside equity raised from Turkish investors, will contribute to financing the expansion of Livzym's recently built plant in Tuzla, Turkey, to meet the growing demand for enzymes.

As part of the strategic collaboration, Lallemand will market and distribute Livzym enzymes to customers worldwide and will involve cooperation around the development and production of the enzymes in Turkey.

Lars Asferg, president of Lallemand Bio-Ingredients, said: “Lallemand is a major global producer of yeast and, in 2019, entered the baking enzyme market with our proprietary ‘LallZyme’ range based on our yeast technology. We have since expanded our enzyme presence with acquisitions of the BASF Nutrilife food and Spartec bio-fuel enzymes businesses.”

He continued: “The strategic collaboration with Livzym and its fungal development and production platform perfectly complements our position within the enzymes sector. The Inclusion of Livzym’s enzymes within Lallemand’s portfolio will enable us to provide our customers with an exciting range of high-performance enzymes.”

Serdar Uysal, founder and CEO of Livzym, commented: “The future of food and agriculture is vital for global sustainability, with biotechnology playing a key role in transforming production technologies. Livzym is the first industrial enzyme producer to be based in Turkey enabling us to service customers across the Europe, Asia, Middle East and African regions.”

“We are very excited about our strategic investment partnership with Lallemand, a leading global fermentation company, seeing it as a significant opportunity to advance sustainability and enzyme and alternative protein technologies through our precision fermentation capabilities.”

In January, Lallemand's Danstar Fement subsidiary acquired Swiss biotech business Evolva from Evolva Holding.