{"id":187300,"date":"2025-10-09T05:24:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T05:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/187300\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T05:24:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T05:24:27","slug":"startup-battlefield-company-aio-invented-a-method-to-make-edible-fat-from-ag-waste-like-sawdust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/187300\/","title":{"rendered":"Startup Battlefield company \u00c4IO\u00a0invented\u00a0a\u00a0method\u00a0to make\u00a0edible\u00a0fat from ag waste like sawdust"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00c4io (pronounced EYE-oh) is the Estonian god of dreams. It\u00a0seems\u00a0a sweetly\u00a0appropriate namesake\u00a0for a rising startup, called \u00c4IO,\u00a0from that\u00a0tiny\u00a0Baltic country\u00a0that has developed a process\u00a0to turn\u00a0agricultural waste like sawdust into\u00a0fats for the food and cosmetic industries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This process could be a way to reduce the world\u2019s dependency on palm oil, which has become a staple for food and cosmetics for its emulsifying and preservative properties. Unfortunately, because of that plant\u2019s need for hot humid climates, this massive industry has also notoriously destroyed rain forests and other sensitive ecosystems to make way for farms.<\/p>\n

\u00c4IO<\/a> was co-founded by biotechnology scientists Nemailla Bonturi and Petri-Jaan Lahtvee\u00a0based on Bonturi\u2019s doctoral research. During her studies she invented a new microbe, a strain of yeast. Instead of consuming sugar and outputting carbon dioxide gas or alcohol as with bread and beer, this yeast consumes sugar and outputs fat molecules. The company will show off its tech as part of Startup Battlefield<\/a> at this year\u2019s TechCrunch Disrupt<\/a>, which runs later this month in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Lahtvee was a professor of Food Tech and Bioengineering at Estonia\u2019s Tallinn University of Technology and, in 2016, running his own biotech lab there with Bonturi, his first hire. She brought her microbe with her, and they worked on the molecule, altering it to be hardy enough to be manufactured.<\/p>\n

As Estonia has a large agriculture base of corn and other food grains, as well as sugarcane and lumber, the lab studied how sugars produced from those ag waste streams could feed this microbe. \u201cWe started working on it, developing metabolic engineering tools,\u201d Lahtvee told TechCrunch. The answer: It could consume those sugars quite well.<\/p>\n

The molecule\u2019s \u201cfat profile is very similar to existing fats,\u201d Lahtvee says, and, in its solid-fat form, probably \u201cmost closely resembles chicken fat.\u201d But it is also possible to modify the fermentation process to produce a liquid oil as well that could make it a good alternative to manufactured oils like canola\/rapeseed oil.<\/p>\n

In 2022, the founders knew they had a commercially viable solution and launched \u00c4IO with the hope of raising venture money and establishing commercial partnerships to bring it to market. They\u2019ve raised about $7 million so far and, since founding, have created methods for developing precision fermentation products, won the 2024 Baltic Sustainability Award, and signed over 100 companies worldwide interested in collaboration, the startup says.<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a very extensive analysis after we make our product and, so far, what we have seen is that our final product is to the same level as vegetable oils, except for the pesticides \u2014 even more pure,\u201d Bonturi told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n

Next up, the company plans to build a facility to produce the fat in commercial quantities by 2027, as well as license the technology to other cosmetic and food manufacturers. It also must obtain licenses to sell the fats as food, country by country, most likely starting with Singapore, which has a history of being more open<\/a> to alternative food production products.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, it\u2019s a novel type of way of producing food, and we have to go through all the permits and analysis,\u201d Bonturi said.<\/p>\n

As such plans progress, Bonturi said that she hopes to show how \u201ctwo scientists in this small country could actually do something better for the world, but that\u2019s just my personal dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you want to learn more about \u00c4IO from the company itself \u2014 while also checking out dozens of others, hearing their pitches, and listening to guest speakers on four different stages \u2014 join us at Disrupt, October 27 to 29, in San Francisco. Learn more here.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TechCrunch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00c4io (pronounced EYE-oh) is the Estonian god of dreams. It\u00a0seems\u00a0a sweetly\u00a0appropriate namesake\u00a0for a rising startup, called \u00c4IO,\u00a0from that\u00a0tiny\u00a0Baltic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[82443,84,4203,82442,36001,36000,36004,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-187300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-aio","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-entrepreneurship","11":"tag-foodtech","12":"tag-startup-battlefield","13":"tag-techcrunch-disrupt","14":"tag-techcrunch-disrupt-2025","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}