Australian biomanufacturer Cauldron Ferm has appointed former BASF executive David Weiner as its new CTO to advance the company’s proprietary “hyper-fermentation” technology.
Weiner – a veteran of the Industrial Biotech, Ag-Biotech, Food and Nutrition, Biofuels, and Pharma industries– will put his experience towards running Cauldron’s technology R&D pipeline for the company’s next phase of global expansion. He will also oversee the scaling of what Cauldron calls a ‘first-of-a-kind’ biomanufacturing processes.
“David brings a distinguished career leading R&D programs that deliver on process optimization to scale novel bioprocesses,” said Michele Stansfield, Co-Founder and CEO of Cauldron. “As Cauldron expands on key technical breakthroughs with our hyper fermentation platform technology, David brings valuable perspectives to our leadership team.”
Weiner’s appointment comes as traditional biomanufacturing companies in areas such as precision fermentation struggle to achieve price parity with mainstream petrochemical or animal derived products.
Precision fermentation refers to the use of programmed microorganisms to produce specific, functional food ingredients such as dairy proteins and other bio materials.
Founded in 2022, Cauldron claims its proprietary hyper-fermentation technology unlocks a scalable continuous bioprocess that significantly reduces the cost of manufacturing for mainstream, high volume bio-manufactured goods. The company also says its process generates more volume at less cost by using smaller bioreactors.
Cauldron says it has proven the efficacy of the technology at 10,000-liter demo scale and has plans in place to scale up to larger industrial-scale production.
Prior to joining Cauldron, Weiner served as VP and Head of R&D at Solugen, where he helped develop technology underpinning a first-of-a-kind biomanufacturing plant—the Bioforge. He has also held high level leadership roles at BASF, Verenium Corporation, and Diversa Corporation.
“I’m excited by the opportunity to expand hyper-fermentation as a platform to scale continuous processes for the global biotech industry,” said Weiner.
“Throughout my career, I’ve seen how applying cutting-edge science to industrial solutions can drive meaningful impact at scale.
“Cauldron’s ability to deliver mainstream bio-products at cost parity with traditional goods offers incredible potential for the bioeconomy. We can redefine the scope of biomanufacturing.”
Cauldron has seen significant momentum over the past year, including onboarding six clients at their 25,000-liter demo facility and closing a Series A round of over $6.25 million.
Technological advances like Cauldron’s hyper-fermentation are among the factors driving down the cost of precision fermentation, according to disruptive technologies think tank, RethinkX.
For example, RethinkX recently reported that the cost of precision fermentation-produced dairy proteins has seen a nearly 70% drop between 2021 and 2023.
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