Company Directory

Agri-tech and bioscience innovation campus in mid Wales

AberInnovation is a BBSRC and Welsh Government-funded innovation campus providing research facilities, business support and accelerator programmes for companies in agri-tech, food and drink and industrial biotechnology. The campus operates five specialist centres covering biorefining, future foods, analytical science, seed biobanking and innovation, and runs the BioAccelerate programme for early-stage bioscience ventures. Part of Aberystwyth University, the campus is co-located with the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences.

Microbiome modulator ingredients for metabolic health and disease prevention

OptiBiotix Health is a biotechnology company developing and licensing microbiome modulator products for use in food ingredients, dietary supplements, and nutraceuticals. Its portfolio includes patented prebiotic and probiotic formulations targeting weight management, cholesterol reduction, cardiovascular health, and gut microbiome diversity. Products are licensed to food and supplement manufacturers globally. The company operates through subsidiaries including OptiBiotix Ltd and holds a majority stake in SkinBioTherapeutics plc and ProBiotix Health Ltd.

Contract isolation and purification of high-value compounds using HPCCC

BioExtractions Wales is a contract extraction and purification company operating from a 10,000 sq ft facility in Tredegar, South Wales. The company provides isolation and purification services to the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, chemical, and food industries using High Performance Counter Current Chromatography, membrane filtration, and supercritical CO2 extraction. Its HPCCC systems enable separation of natural products, peptides, and synthetic molecules from gram to kilogram scale, isolating multiple target compounds in a single pass.

Fermentation platform producing renewable xylitol from agricultural waste

ARCITEKBio is an industrial biotech company developing a fermentation-based manufacturing platform for renewable xylitol production. Using engineered yeast strains, the company converts agricultural and industrial waste streams, including wheat straw, wood pulp, and brewers' by-products, into a natural low-calorie sweetener with applications in food, dental, and dietary products. ARCITEKBio also operates Project Revalue, a Welsh Government-supported initiative connecting businesses to valorise waste streams.

Speciality enzyme discovery, development, and commercial-scale manufacture

Biocatalysts is a Welsh industrial biotechnology company specialising in the discovery, development, and commercial-scale manufacture of speciality enzymes. Operating from fermentation and downstream processing facilities in Nantgarw, the company serves food and beverage, pharmaceutical, and life science industries with both catalogue enzyme products and bespoke custom development services. Its metagenomics platform supports novel enzyme discovery. Biocatalysts is a wholly owned subsidiary of BRAIN Biotech AG and holds multiple international quality and food safety certifications.

Microalgae cultivation and extraction for food, feed, and pharma

Algae Products International is a microalgae biotechnology company cultivating and processing microalgae for the food, nutraceutical, aquafeed, and pharmaceutical industries. Operating from photobioreactor facilities at the Clydach Refinery in Swansea, the company extracts high-value co-products including carotenoid pigments, phycobiliproteins, omega-3 lipids, and protein biomass. Its production process incorporates carbon capture, using waste CO₂ as a feedstock for algae cultivation.

Oxford University spinout producing cultivated beef and pork

Ivy Farm Technologies is a company developing cultivated meat using a non-GMO cell culture process originally developed at the University of Oxford. Its Oxford pilot plant operates a 600-litre bioreactor with capacity to produce 2.8 tonnes of cultivated meat annually, with products including beef burgers, sausages and meatballs. The company has raised approximately $40 million in total funding and is pursuing regulatory approval through the UK FSA novel food process alongside international market entry.

Capacitance-based biomass monitoring instruments for bioprocessing and brewing

Aber Instruments develops and manufactures online probes and instrumentation for real-time viable cell monitoring in bioprocessing and brewing applications. The company's capacitance-based technology measures live cell concentration in fermenters and bioreactors across yeast, bacterial, animal, insect and plant cell systems. Spun out of Aberystwyth University, Aber Instruments is an employee-owned company supplying pharmaceutical, biotechnology and brewing customers across more than 115 countries.

Precision fermentation platform producing animal-free dairy proteins

Better Dairy is a biotechnology company using precision fermentation to produce animal-free dairy proteins including casein and osteopontin. By engineering yeast to express mammalian milk proteins, the company produces bioidentical ingredients that enable food manufacturers to make dairy products without livestock. Its current focus is on breastmilk-inspired proteins for infant nutrition and adult supplement applications, alongside supplying casein to cheese and dairy manufacturers.

AI-designed serum-free cell culture media for biomanufacturing

Multus Biotechnology is a UK developer and manufacturer of serum-free, animal-component-free cell culture media and growth media ingredients. The company combines machine learning and high-throughput robotic automation to design and optimise custom media formulations for specific cell types across cultivated meat, advanced therapy medicinal products, and broader biomanufacturing applications. Media is manufactured to food-safety standards from a certified facility in London.

Cultivated chicken meat produced from egg cells for pet food

Meatly is a cellular agriculture company producing cultivated chicken meat for the pet food industry. Using cells taken from a chicken egg, the company grows real chicken protein in bioreactors using a proprietary protein-free culture medium, without slaughter, GMOs, or antibiotics. In 2024 Meatly became the first company in Europe to receive regulatory clearance to sell cultivated meat, supplied as a B2B ingredient to pet food manufacturers.

Molecular farming platform producing specialty proteins from crop leaves

Kyomei is a biotechnology company developing a molecular farming platform that genetically engineers crop plants to produce high-value specialty proteins in their leaves. The company extracts these proteins from agricultural leaf waste that would otherwise be discarded at harvest. Kyomei's ingredients target food manufacturers seeking natural replacements for synthetic emulsifiers and stabilisers, with applications also in cosmetics and materials.