Comet Bio expands overseas

London’s Comet Bio partners to open Danish manufacturing facility

AFTER CLOSING A $25 million investment round earlier this year, local food technology company Comet Bio has announced that they are building a dedicated manufacturing facility in Denmark.

Comet Bio uses patented upcycling technology to produce sustainable products, such as food service sweeteners and nutritional supplements, from crop leftovers such as straw, leaves and stalks.

COMET BIO, A London-based food technology company that has picked up awards for its unique process of making ingredients and additives out of upcycled crop leftovers, has closed their Series C financing round after drawing in $22 million in investment.

The investment is being made along with RE Energy, a waste-to-energy firm, who will be expanding and upgrading their facility in Kalundborg. When finished, Comet Bio says the facility will be able to supply over four million kilos of prebiotic fibre per year.

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The knock-on economic benefits for farmers will mostly be felt in Denmark, as the company says RE Energy (who will be operating the facility) will partner with Danish farmers to source agricultural waste products. “The partnership will benefit the farmers by fully utilizing their whole harvest, providing a new revenue stream while also improving the circularity of the food chain,” Comet Bio says.

Comet Bio’s crown jewel is a product called Arrabina ― a prebiotic dietary fibre that they manufacture from crop leftovers like wheat straw, brewer’s grains and pea husks. The company says the product has been “clinically proved to promote growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut, help maintain healthy blood glucose levels, and support immunity.”

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Last year, Arrabina won the North American New Product Innovation Award, and prebiotic additives are expected to grow into a $6 billion industry in the coming years.

The whole operation will be set up in a plant first opened by DONG Energy in 2009, when it was built as a demonstration of subsidiary Inbicon’s biofuel production technology. In 2020, RE Energy bought the low-carbon facility, which had been closed in 2014, with plans to refurbish it for use in biorefinement. Now, with improvements and upgrades, the facility will be used at least in part to produce Arrabina, as well as “advanced biofuel and lignin,” RE Energy says.

When completed it will be their second European facility, with their first located in Rotondella, Italy. Comet Bio also has offices in Schaumburg, Illinois. 

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“We have great expectations that we, through the cooperation with Comet Bio, will be able to create and operate an innovative and sustainable manufacturing facility for this exciting new product,” says Henrik Maimann, CEO of RE energy.

“RE Energy is a great partner and we are excited to be investing with them to build a dedicated manufacturing facility,” says Comet Bio CEO Rich Troyer. “This partnership will allow us to serve our customers’ needs for a prebiotic fiber that is fully soluble and easy to add to nutrition bars, baked goods, beverages or any other format that consumers go to for gut health benefits.” Kieran Delamont