Ayana Bio Pledges $3M to Accelerate Cacao Bioactive Production Using Cellular Cultivation
The initiative uses biotechnology to sustainably produce cacao bioactives and support genetic research to improve cacao plant varieties
Ayana Bio, a plant cell technology company making sustainable bioactives for consumer products, pledged $3 million to accelerate the production of cacao bioactives through cellular cultivation. Cacao contains biologically active compounds that support healthy digestion, cardiovascular health, cognition and immunity while reducing risk of inflammation and diabetes. However, traditional harvesting methods are expensive, unsustainable and have been linked to numerous supply chain challenges, including child labor, farmer poverty, pests, climate change and deforestation.
Ayana Bio will use this fund to expedite the commercialization of cacao wellness ingredients and prioritize research to link the genetic profiles of different cacao varieties with certain health benefits and usage applications to expand partnerships with CPG companies. Ayana Bio is producing the cacao using its proprietary plant cell cultivation technology, a means to produce plant materials without growing plants in the ground. Instead, Ayana Bio's technology grows cacao biomass from optimized cell lines in a stainless-steel cultivation system akin to beer fermentation, yielding the identical molecular mixtures found in nature—or even higher concentrations of beneficial bioactives.