Lallemand Bio-Ingredients president unravels opportunities in Evolva acquisition

26 Jan 2024 --- Lallemand Bio-Ingredients’ recent acquisition of Swiss biotechnology firm Evolva for a reported CHF20 million (∼US$23 million) will enable the company to produce complex molecules from yeast for the first time. Meanwhile, Lallemand will bring improved economies of scale and market accessibility to Evolva and its proprietary precision fermentation technology through its global reach. 

In this exclusive interview, Lars Asferg, president and general manager at Lallemand Bio-Ingredients, tells Nutrition Insight why the Canadian company targeted Evolva, what future investments to expect and the key focuses this year for his business unit.

“We are a fermentation company — that’s our core. With our experience in fermentation, Evolva can benefit from our ability to operate at scale in an economical way. And we can learn from Evolva’s ability to develop complex processes in yeast, so we see an obvious synergy.”

“Evolva’s competencies in programming yeast to make these complex molecules is something that we are not doing today. We are programming yeast to produce enzymes and proteins but not these complex secondary metabolites — this is a great addition to our technology base that we will be able to expand to other applications, like animal nutrition and many other areas.”

Privatization potential
Prior to the Lallemand acquisition, Evolva’s Board of Directors revealed that financing challenges had made it impossible for the Swiss firm to continue developing its value potential as an independent stock-listed company.

As a privately owned, global leader in yeast-based ingredients, Asferg believes Lallemand is well-positioned to elevate Evolva’s business capabilities.

“Evolva has a long track record of developing and producing complex molecules in yeast — but as a small company, with limited market access, we can bring it to a bigger economical scale, with our 48 plants worldwide and go-to-market organization. We have 5,000 people and cover a broad range of market segments that were not accessible to Evolva,” he explains.

“Our intention is to build on the organization platform at Evolva and harness the synergies from working with Lallemand — we have a broad range of business units covering all kinds of segments where the evolving products and technologies could really come to fruition.”

Asferg highlights Evolva’s health ingredients like Veri-te resveratrol, which has also been extended to personal care and pet applications, and flavor and fragrance aroma components like Valencene and natural Nootkatone as products with scalability potential.

Future investments
Lallemand does not plan to make further acquisitions to support the Evolva deal, but Asferg tells us it is only natural that the company would make investments to realize the scalability potential of the new deal.

“We have most of the pieces of the puzzle to make Evolva a success. I see more that we will continue investments in capabilities, technologies and sites to make sure that we can make these products in the right quality and quantity and at the right cost,” he says.

“But that does not mean we are not going to make acquisitions — typically, we acquire one or two companies per year, but they will not be specifically related to Evolva.”Lars Asferg, president at Lallemand Bio-Ingredients, sheds light on the Evolva acquisition.

Key focuses
This year, Lallemand Bio-Ingredients will continue to develop yeast-based products, including enzymes for core markets like brewing and taste solutions for the plant-based nutrition industry.

“We have basically developed technology to produce enzymes in yeast and introduce a couple of new enzymes per year, which is attractive to a lot of markets like baking or brewing,” continues Asferg.

“We also work a lot on using yeast technology to make molecules of yeast ingredients that work as a taste modulator, addressing some taste issues in plant-based protein. Based on our specialist technology, we have been able to make products that mask or modulate tastes to make them much more accessible to consumers — we have a lot going on in this space.”

The business also produces very highly concentrated yeast proteins for functional and nutritional ingredients with clean taste.

“Beyond yeast, we focus a lot on postbiotics. We are well poised with our ability to produce these organisms and turn them into postbiotics that are, in principle, inactivated products that still work and give benefits to the gut,” adds Asferg.

In December, Lallemand’s Bio-Ingredients and Specialty Cultures divisions developed a solution to reduce or remove the need for added nitrates and nitrites in processed meats.

By Joshua Poole