Description of the portfolio company
Triplebar Bio uses a novel screening technology to optimize and select the right strains, cell lines or antibodies for partner companies. The partner companies use the selected strain, cell lines or antibodies as an input to further develop their target products. Triplebar is a multi-product, multi-vertical product design engine. For food and nutrition, they focus on bioactives, functional food proteins, and cultured meat, and for healthcare, they focus on novel biologics.
Investment rationale
The investment in Triplebar aligns with the food system transition strategy and supporting Rabobank’s clients in this transition. To meet the demand for proteins and ingredients in a sustainable matter, there is a need for alternative production methods aside the animal. Biotechnology offers a large opportunity, but in order to make alternative production methods like precision fermentation and cell-based production feasible, cost of production should come down.
Triplebar’s technology offers a unique capability to bring down the cost of key inputs, which can support multiple other start-ups and incumbents to commercialize sustainable products. Triplebar announced a partnership in January 2023 with FrieslandCampina Ingredients to co-develop and scale up the production of ingredients essential to human nutrition. Together, Triplebar and FrieslandCampina Ingredients will produce microbial cells via fermentation which, at scale, can produce proteins with a much smaller land, water, and energy footprint than traditional livestock.