Ankur Capital, a leading early-stage venture capital fund focused on transformative technologies in deep science tech and climate tech, has invested seed capital in two early-stage biotech start-ups — MyoWorks and D-NOME.

With climate change, the pandemic and various concerns around food security and the growing population, biotech has the potential to offer solutions to some of the most pressing problems being faced by the world today which makes it an attractive focus area for Ankur Capital, a statement from the venture fund said.

MyoWorks, founded by Nihal Singh and Shubhankar Takle, is building edible fungal mycelium-based 2D and 3D scaffolds which will support the production of cultivated meat products. Scaffolds that can mimic real tissue environments will help achieve faster consumer acceptance and reduce manufacturing costs further.

 The company aims to create an ecosystem of ancillary products that will facilitate any cultivated-meat company’s vision to replace real meat products with in-vitro meat. Experts believe the cultivated meat market could grow to more than $25 billion by 2030.

 McKinsey says that coupled with the innovations and economies of scale (annual production of more than 1.5 million tonnes), cultured meat will attain cost parity by 2030 and should be available for less than $5 per pound of meat. Scaffolds are expected to contribute close to five per cent of the meat weight, making it a multi-billion-dollar industry.

D-NOME is developing a molecular diagnostic platform solution based on loop-mediated isothermal amplification technology (D-LAMP) with applications in human infectious diseases, livestock screening, agriculture molecular techniques and next-generation genomic sequencing. The market for molecular diagnostics saw a growth of more than 230 per cent year-on-year in 2019-20 and is valued at more than $20 billion. 

Founded by Divya Sriram and Sujoy Deb, the D-LAMP technology is a low-cost alternative to PCR technology and has the potential to be used at the Point of Care (PoC).

“We are excited to expand our portfolio in the deep science space with two very exciting companies in mycelium-based scaffolds for cell-based meat and protein engineering for diagnostics in human and animal health. Both areas are ripe for disruptive technologies,” said Ritu Verma, Managing Partner, Ankur Capital. 

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