When most children rebel against their families, they may become ski butts, join a band or go to art school. Chen Mingli decided to set up a company.
“I grew up in the traditional palm oil industry,” Lee told TechCrunch. “My family’s business is one of the most important producers in the palm oil space. So I grew up a little — I have to admit — shy at what my family did.”
Palm oil has become a dominant market in the vegetable oil market, with all ingredients and derivatives from snack foods and cosmetics to pharmaceuticals and biofuels appearing in all ingredients. But along the way Deforestation Tropical areas, especially in Southeast Asia.
Li’s startup germ, Terra OleoAppeared in 2022 when he met co-founder Boon Uranukul, who was a PhD candidate at MIT, developed components of microorganisms that could use agricultural waste to produce plastics.
“I do have this desire to build something that might be based on my family’s legacy, but with my values as a Gen Z, the sustainability-leading person is more consistent,” Lee said. “We started thinking about something we could do differently, matching his expertise to my connections and strategic network.”
The Singapore-based startup has been operating invisible for nearly two years to develop microorganisms that can convert agricultural waste into various oils.
The startup exclusively told TechCrunch that Terra Oleo has raised funds from ADB Ventures, Better Bite Ventures, Better Bite Ventures, Better Bite Ventures, Elev8.VC, Aggressive Funds, a strategic corporate investor, and other investors. As do Lee and Uranukul This year’s Breakthrough Energy Researcher Cohort.
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Palm oil can be refined into dozens of derivatives, so Lee and Uranukul map them to determine where to start. “What is the highest value? But technically, it’s easier for us to cope with and lower the hanging fruit?” Li said.
“There is a fantasy that everything about crude palm oil is everything,” she said. The raw materials are “very low-profit commodities.” Instead, they decided to jump straight to high-value products, including cocoa butter and specialty oils used in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries.
To make these oils, the company selected three yeast species based on the ability of microorganisms to produce certain oils, including organic waste, including agricultural and biodiesel production. Then use genetics and Metabolic Engineering Improve and adjust the ability to produce certain fats and triglycerides.
Currently, the company is still in the laboratory, producing oil at one time. But Lee said Terra Oleo plans to use the funds to produce something worth kilograms.
Terra Oleo can already produce oil for the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries at a cost far below its selling price. This is mainly because startup microorganisms produce the right chemicals from the start, eliminating the need for expensive refining.
“We are looking for more than 80% profit margins for some of these specialized oily substances because their traditional production is really expensive,” Lee said.
Hitting the scale required to replace large amounts of palm oil is not easy. Last season, the world produced nearly 79 million tons. according to To the USDA, although the market has not grown significantly over the past six years.
For Lee, it’s an opportunity to show existing palm oil producers that might have another path.
“We are not going from palm oil to other sources overnight,” she said. “It’s so common, it’s a versatile ingredient, and I think it’s going to be a slow transition and we’re working with the industry to get the diverse production portfolio we want to see.”
