Pitch for Investment

twig

UKI2S > Our Impact > twig

Introduction

From food ingredients to personal care products, many of the products and services we rely on day to day are powered by fossil fuels and intensive farming.

Unfortunately this is no longer sustainable — if we’re to meet the challenges of global warming and achieve net zero. Oil needs to stay in the ground, and farm land needs to be managed sustainably.

That’s where twig comes in. Founded in 2022, twig bio Ltd is leveraging bioengineering and technology to produce everyday products at scale with lower costs and better climate impacts. Instead of petrochemical-derived ingredients, twig harnesses the power of fermentation, using its revolutionary AI platform. The platform rewrites the biological code of microbes which convert waste from the food industry into sustainably-made ingredients.

With this incredible technology, twig is developing its own range of proprietary products with biology-based alternatives that offer functional benefits as well as far greater sustainability. The team is also working alongside large corporate partners to drop replacements into their high volume chemicals.

The Science

Using its AI platform, twig reprograms microbes to make novel materials and chemicals via fermentation.

twig’s technology designs the novel DNA sequences and edits the microbes using a fast and safe design-build-test-learn cycle.

Its platform automates the experiments in twig’s wet-lab at small scale and via contract manufacturing at volume…

“twig:tech is our proprietary technology developed by our science and tech teams. Each of the three pillars is built to deliver high performing strains that deliver the products we need.”

Within the twig:tech platform is ML:Bridge — the brains of the operation. It’s “an always-evolving feedback loop [which] crunches the numbers and connects the dots, extracting insight from every experiment.”

Bio:Builder, is twig’s best-in-class strain tool which “allows us to accurately create tens of thousands of pathway combinations in one go, creating an ever-growing library of standardised DNA parts.”

The final twig:tech pillar is Grow:Bot, “dependable, programmable and scalable robotics [which] can manipulate and analyse tens of thousands of bacteria variations each month, providing us with the fuel for our ML:Bridge engine.”

UKI2S Impact

>30 million

In its last product build, twig's AI platform and automated wet-lab designed and tested >30 million different bacterial strains in just a few weeks

>10 twiglets

Team grown to over 10 twiglets

Collaborations

Collaborations in place with global speciality chemicals and ingredients manufacturers

Russ Tucker, Co-founder and CEO, twig said:

“We’re really proud to be backed by The UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund because they are as passionate about science and sustainability as twig. Having successfully backed engineering biology companies before, their support and advice has helped us to refine our strategy and position us for the growth to come.”

UKI2S is delighted to back twig, as the team work on replacing polluting chemicals with sustainable and potentially carbon negative alternatives. Alongside an £350,000 initial investment in twig, we’ve made co-investment introductions and provided strategic support.

twig is moving us towards sustainable manufacturing of chemicals across a range of industries, so we’re proud to have played a part in de-risking the platform, funding the development of its own proprietary pipeline, and of course, opening the door to corporate engagement and commercial opportunities. With some other fantastic investors on its side, including Seedcamp, Kapital, Gaingels, Zero Carbon and Project A, we’re excited to continue supporting twig’s mission.

The world needs sustainable manufacturing and twig’s platform has the potential to deliver. With a high capacity to find efficient, low-cost routes to a vast array of bio alternatives, twig is opening access to a huge range of markets, whilst paving the way to a new era of sustainable ingredients which don’t cost the earth — financially and environmentally!

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© UKI2S and Future Planet Capital (Ventures) Limited. All Rights Reserved. UKI2S is managed by Future Planet Capital (Ventures) Limited which is Authorised and Regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority FRN 148549. Registered in England and Wales. Company Number 2500898. Registered Address: Future Planet Capital (Ventures) Limited, t/a Midven, 1 Scott Place, 2 Hardman Street, Manchester, M3 3AA.

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