Microbes as Factories: Fermelanta Raises $13M to Advance Japan’s Bioeconomy Goals

Funding fuels pilot-scale fermentation of rare natural compounds as Japan pushes bio-manufacturing as a national priority.

Courtesy: Fermelanta

Japanese synthetic biology firm Fermelanta, has closed a ¥2 billion (≈ $13 million / €12 million) Series A round to expand fermentation of rare natural compounds destined for food, agriculture, and related sectors. The raise brings the company’s total capital to ¥4.8 billion (≈ $31 million / €29 million). With a pilot plant planned for completion in May 2026, Fermelanta is advancing its efforts to transform the way we source functional ingredients, bioactive compounds, and agrochemicals.

From its start in 2022 as a spin-out from Ishikawa Prefectural University, Fermelanta has focused on using engineered microbes to replace resource-intensive plant extraction of valuable molecules. Its portfolio spans pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, fragrances, but also functional food ingredients, feed additives, and agricultural compounds like biopesticides. The logic is simple yet powerful: fermentation offers a more stable supply, purer product, and a potentially lower ecological footprint.

The company’s research lineage is well established: in 2008, its founding team pioneered the microbial production of alkaloids, complex plant metabolites that include pharmaceutical agents such as morphine and codeine. In recent years, Fermelanta has achieved gram-per-liter yields in lab fermentation and production of tens of grams per batch in bench-scale runs. Some yields already compete with market pricing for natural extracts. The goal now is scaling to levels of tens to hundreds of kilograms via partnerships with CDMOs.

One striking feature of their technology is the ability to introduce over 20 heterologous genes into a single E. coli strain, constructing biosynthetic pathways with many sequential enzymatic steps. Proprietary solutions, like balancing gene expression, designing strains stable under high protein burden, and optimizing metabolic flux, allow the microbes to run long, multi-step synthetic pathways.   As the company puts it, they apply synthetic biology not only to discover new enzyme functions but to design new functional metabolic circuits.

Beyond cosmetics or pharmaceuticals, the food and agriculture domains are becoming focal. The company is already engaging with food science and industrial partners to integrate bio-derived compounds into formulations.   In the agricultural realm, there is growing interest in bio-pesticides, biostimulants, or plant-protective molecules that are natural, targeted, and less damaging to ecosystems. Fermelanta’s platform could offer a more scalable, controllable route to these inputs, bypassing the variability, supply constraints, and environmental impacts of conventional extraction or chemical synthesis.

Japan’s national roadmap supports exactly this trajectory. Under the Japan Bioeconomy Strategy, biotechnology is a pillar of how the country intends to transform primary industries, food systems, bio-manufacturing, and sustainable materials.   The strategy lays out nine market segments—among them “healthcare / functional foods” and “sustainable primary systems”- and urges coordinated investments in bio-communities, data infrastructure, and international collaboration.   In recent years, the Green Innovation Fund and other government programs have funneled support into ventures bridging life sciences and industry.

Fermelanta has meanwhile expanded its footprint: it now maintains a Tokyo lab and, earlier this year, opened a U.S. business development arm, with Europe (starting with France) on the horizon.   Investors have lauded the model. The Keio Innovation Initiative, among the new backers, praised Fermelanta’s approach as a “sustainable, efficient route” to replace high-cost, high-impact extraction methods.

If the pilot plant comes online as planned in 2026, Fermelanta may emerge not just as a biotech success story but as a food-system innovator. By replacing fragile supply chains of rare botanical molecules with controlled microbial processes, it can help stabilize ingredient markets, reduce pressure on endangered or overexploited plant species, and shrink the environmental toll of chemical synthesis. In doing so, Fermelanta is staking a claim at the intersection of biotechnology, agriculture, and sustainable food systems, where microbes become the quiet factory workers powering the next generation of clean, scalable, and resilient bio-derived ingredients.