Evolva to develop fermentation production routes with Ajinom

Evolva Holding SA, a developer and manufacturer of sustainable ingredients, has entered into a collaboration agreement with Ajinomoto Co Inc, which will see the two companies work on developing new fermentation production routes for a natural functional ingredient for use in personal care products.

Ajinomoto will fund R&D at Evolva to build a new pathway using Evolva’s fermentation technology, with the aim of improving production yield through the scale-up and manufacturing phases. As part of the three and a half year agreement, Evolva will receive an upfront exclusivity and technology access fee, monthly research fees and milestone payments upon achieving yield, productivity and production cost goals. The total payment made to Evolva will equal more than CHF10m.

Neil Goldsmith, chief executive officer of Evolva, said: “We value highly the confidence in our capabilities that Ajinomoto Co is showing by entering into this collaboration. We look forward to providing Ajinomoto Co with efficient production routes for their important product. For Evolva, this project has long-term benefits as it allows us to build a pathway, which can be important for other products.”