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  • 2022.12.28
  • Investment

Additional Investment in AlgalBio, Inc.

Innovation Kyoto 2016 Investment Limited Partnership ("KYOTO-iCAP No.1 Fund"), with Kyoto University Innovation Capital Corporation ("Kyoto iCAP") (Head Office: Sakyo-ku, Kyoto; Representative Director: Kimi Kusumi) as unlimited liability partner, has made an additional investment in AlgarBio Inc. (Head office: Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture; Representative Director: Shu Kimura), a start-up company that utilizes research results from Kyoto University.

Outline of ○Investment
AlgalBio is a startup established based on the results of advanced breeding research on algae conducted by Professor Emeritus Shigeyuki Kono and his colleagues at the University of Tokyo. The company has built a library of approximately 3,000 strains of microalgae through its research and development to date, and Professor Hideaki Miyashita of Kyoto University's Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies has contributed to this achievement.

AlgalBio is currently developing various algae-derived products and solutions as a bio-foundry type algae development platform that screens the most suitable algae species for specific applications and target products from our own algae library and associated accumulated data, and provides customers with the "algae technology package" necessary for commercialization and application through breeding improvement and optimization of culture production methods. We are developing various algae-derived products and solutions as a bio-foundry type algae development platform that provides customers with the "algae technology package" necessary for commercialization and application by optimizing breeding and cultivation methods.

Algae is a very useful resource in realizing a carbon-neutral society because it utilizes CO2 to produce useful components. AlgalBio has also started "R&D on CO2 fixation by microalgae and production of useful chemicals" (NEDO project) at its research base in Osakigamijima, Hiroshima Prefecture this fiscal year.

Kyoto iCAP has invested an additional 50 million yen in the Series B round, totaling 940 million yen, in recognition of AlgarBio's technological capability to mass produce useful materials from CO2 and sunlight without relying on fossil fuels. In addition to Kyoto iCAP, 12 other companies participated in the financing, including DBJ Capital Corporation, The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners, Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation, and ITOCHU Corporation.

Outline of AlgalBio, Inc.

Establishment March 2018
Business Research and development, production and sales of algae and its components
Head Office Location Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture
President & CEO Shu Kimura

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