C16 Biosciences founders in the company’s office in Manhattan, NY.
Shara Ticku was boarding a flight to Singapore for a work trip when her company handed her a stack of N95 masks. This was July 2013, when most of us had never even tried on a face mask. At that time, Shara was working on Wallstreet managing Southeast Asian accounts. It was her first trip to Singapore, and she did not take the precaution seriously at first, until she witnessed first-hand the thick haze engulfing the small island nation. The air quality was so bad that schools were closed and people with health conditions were advised against going outside. All that smog came not from industrial pollution or local transportation but from slash-and-burn operations happening hundreds of miles away in neighboring countries that were clearing native forests to make way for palm plantations.
That was when Shara, who later became the founder and CEO of C16 Biosciences, first learned about palm oil production and its devastating effects on the environment. The global palm oil market is valued at $53.1 billion in 2022, and the demand for it is still growing. It is literally in everything – from baby formula to the fuel we put in our cars – making it one of the hardest ingredients to replace. But producing palm oil causes the destruction of tropical forests and animal habitats, displacement of communities, exploitative labor practices, and massive amounts of carbon released into the atmosphere. The Rainforest Action Network refers to unethically or unsustainably sourced palm oil as “Conflict Palm Oil”.
C16 Biosciences sees this as a perfect opportunity to demonstrate the potential of synthetic biology to solve the environmental problems the current and future generations are facing. The company, which has established a 20,000-square-foot headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, wants to replace conflict palm oil with a sustainable alternative made in yeast using precision fermentation. Its co-founders – Shara Ticku, Harry McNamara, and David Heller – met while attending a course called “Revolutionary Ventures” at the MIT Media Lab and united over their mutual concern about the destruction of the vital ecosystems of our planet. “None of us were looking to become entrepreneurs. We didn’t have a hammer, we really started with a problem,” Shara recalls. “Having seen the massive destruction cause by the industrial production of palm oil, we started asking the question – how can we fix this?”
The three of them attended the launch of the Impossible Burger at Momofuku Nishi in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood January 2016 and were galvanized by the promise of synthetic biology to solve a consumer problem. If biotechnology can replace meat, why not palm oil? The alternative proteins market is booming: a total of $11.1 billion has been invested in the space since 2010 and $5 billion in 2021 alone, according the Good Food Institute (GFI). In contrast, only $100 million has gone into developing alternative fats and oil products. This is an overlooked opportunity, considering that approximately 70% of calories in a burger come from fat which gives meat its juiciness, tenderness, and flavor. Companies like Zero Acre Farms, Yali Bio, and Melt&Marble are making fermentation-based cooking oils and fats that add flavor to plant-based foods.
But food is only one of many uses for cultured fats and oils. Palm oil and its derivatives can be found in over 50% of products on supermarket shelves, including cosmetics, personal, and home care products. The business potential for this ingredient is enormous, with impact across many industries, and C16 Biosciences is looking to bring innovation to those sectors. Their approach is not to focus on a single product, but rather to create a platform that would enable seamless introduction of sustainable ingredients into consumer products across different industries: “Synthetic biology is an enabler – but it enables so many different things across so many different markets – and there is not a single playbook in terms of what the product-to-market strategy looks like,” said Shara. She will be speaking at the SynBioBeta 2023 conference next May, where the industry leader are gathering to discuss strategies and business models.
No more excuses
Last month, C16 Biosciences announced the launch of Palmless™, a consumer-facing brand platform for products that use palm oil, which is targeted towards innovative beauty, personal, and home care brands. The company is partnering up with both established and young innovating brands looking to clean up their act: “Food is very important to us, but we’ve got a really compelling market in personal care”, explains Shara. “A lot of brands and consumers [in that space] want products that are at the heart of innovation and more sustainable.” The Palmless™ platform launch comes just two years after C16 Biosciences closed a $20 million Series A investment round in March 2020 led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate tech investment firm funded by Bill Gates.
The approach C16 Biosciences is taking represents a fundamental shift in how we use land and natural resources: “If we look at the way agriculture works today, our attitude towards natural resources is quite extractive. We want to reimagine our relationship with nature,” said Shara. Synthetic biology is enabling a much more sustainable model for making consumer products by looking at nature for inspiration and not exploitation: “We have identified a yeast strain that naturally makes oil,” explained Shara. “We grow it using fermentation, which has been used for centuries in food, medicine and even beauty. And then we improve it with the best tools of biotechnology to improve both the quality and the quantity.”
C16 is hoping to replace palm oil from products that have not been able to find a good alternative to it: “The customers we are working with don’t have a good alternative to palm oil. Even if those companies have said ‘we are going to stop using palm oil’, they can’t achieve that because there is really no good alternative available today.” But now there is. The company’s motto is “No more excuses”, and this bold stance on fighting climate change cuts through the noise: “It sends a strong signal of what those companies and brands stand for,” remarked Shara. “Palmless™ is unmistakably clear about what we do and what we stand for – and what you stand for when you buy a product that’s made with Palmless™.”
Many brands are already lining up to partner up with C16 to create new products that will carry the Palmless™ trademark. The first product featuring C16 palm oil alternative is set to be launched in early 2023 and the company is working hard to scale production to meet the demand: “Our goal is to get to 100 metric tons [annual] production pretty quickly here,” said the CEO. They see the personal care market not only as a good business entry point, but as an opportunity to educate consumers about what synthetic biology can do for our planet: “Palm oil is what we started with, but we do have in mind other fats and oils,” envisions Shara.
The near-term plan for C16 Biosciences is to enter the retail market through partners that share their values when it comes to climate change. But the founders are thinking decades ahead: “We’ve got a bigger problem that we need to fix in the next 30 years,” said Shara. As the world’s population is inching towards 10 billion by 2050, the humanity needs to focus on a more pragmatic approach to how we use our resources and creating a truly circular economy. I have previously written about the economic benefits of preserving and protecting the biodiversity of rainforests. Sustainability should always be a part of the equation when we calculate the impact of resource use. Global skincare, cosmetics, haircare, and personal care industries have a combined value of $558 billion, which means limiting the use of farmed palm oil in those products can make a big difference for our planet.
A long-range vision
Manhattan may seem an unlikely home for a biotech startup. But as the synthetic biology industry is starting to move from niche B2B offerings to mainstream consumer-facing products, it may be time to claim some real estate in the Big Apple. The city is known for setting trends, and sustainability is all the buzz in industries from food to fashion. Consumer brands are responding to the pressure from customers and growing environmental concerns, and synthetic biology companies including Amyris, LanzaTech, Geno, and C16, are providing the materials and ingredients for more sustainable consumer products. What better place to have a company than in the epicenter of consumer product innovation, with views of the Hudson Yards and stunning sunsets over the river?
C16 Biosciences has a big vision to match their lofty office space and they are thinking far into the future. In 1853, the New York State Legislature enacted a law that set aside 775 acres of land in Manhattan for what would become the Central Park. If the city council had not allocated it for public use, the NYC’s famous landmark would most likely be used to fill the housing demand. The Central Park is equivalent to roughly 16 billion New York apartments but having a green sanctuary in the middle of a concrete jungle is priceless for its residents. The question is: how many acres of land could C16’s 20,000-square-foot office space give back to our planet?
Thank you to Katia Tarasava for additional research and reporting on this article. I’m the founder of SynBioBeta and an operating partner at DCVC that has invested in C16, and some of the companies, including LanzaTech, Amyris, and Geno, that I write about are sponsors of the SynBioBeta conference and weekly digest.
