Ankur Capital backs biotech startups MyoWorks and D-NOME
- ByStartupStory | October 14, 2022
Ankur Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm, announced an undisclosed seed investment in two biotech businesses, MyoWorks and D-Nome.
MyoWorks, founded by Nihal Singh and Shubhankar Takle, is a company that is exploring edible fundal mycelium-based 2D and 3D scaffolds capable of simulating genuine tissue conditions in order to make more realistic lab-produced meat.
D-NOME is creating a molecular diagnostic platform to identify infectious illnesses such as TB, hepatitis B and C, HIV, HPV, urinary tract infections (UTIs), and malignancies at an early stage. While Indian biotech has grown rapidly, funding for the sector has remained difficult due to regulatory constraints, significant risks, and extended gestation periods. With climate change, pandemics, and numerous worries about food security and population growth, biotech has the potential to give answers to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, making it an appealing focal area for Ankur Capital.
The cost of producing cultured meat has decreased by orders of magnitude over the last decade, but one of the major hurdles that remain is replicating the multicellular complexity of animal flesh architecture. Scaffolds that can simulate genuine tissue settings can aid in achieving speedier market acceptance and further lowering production costs. The firm intends to build an ecosystem of auxiliary goods that will let any cultivated-meat company realize its objective of replacing genuine meat products with in-vitro meat.
According to experts, the cultured beef business might be worth more than $25 billion by 2030. According to McKinsey, cultured meat will achieve cost parity by 2030 and should be accessible for less than $5 per pound of meat due to advances and economies of scale (annual production of more than 1.5 million tonnes). Scaffolds are predicted to contribute up to 5% of the meat weight, making the business itself a multibillion-dollar one.
“This fundraise will be instrumental for us to achieve our technological milestones which will play a crucial role to help bring cultivated meat from the lab bench to people’s tables,” said Nihal Singh, Co-Founder, MyoWorks on the announcement.
“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, and we are thrilled as Ankur to deepen our commitment to disruptive technologies” said Ritu Verma, Managing Partner, Ankur Capital.
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