Zymofix raises €6 million to scale microbial manufacturing for agriculture

Belgian industrial biotechnology company Zymofix has raised a Series A led by First Imagine! and will invest €6 million ($7.0 million) in a new manufacturing plant in Deinze as it moves its solid-state fermentation technology into industrial production.

The company said the facility, which is expected to begin production in the fourth quarter of 2027, will have an initial capacity of 300 tonnes a year, enough to produce microbial products for approximately 1 million hectares. Zymofix plans a further €25 million ($29.2 million) expansion in 2028, subject to successful commissioning of the initial production line, which would increase capacity to 2,000 tonnes a year, or roughly 10 million hectares.

Zymofix targets manufacturing bottleneck

The investment comes as agricultural-input companies expand their portfolios of biostimulants, biofertilizers and biocontrol products. While microbial technologies have attracted growing interest as alternatives or complements to conventional agricultural inputs, scaling the production of microorganisms remains a challenge for product developers.

Zymofix’s technology platform, Zyft, is designed to address that manufacturing problem. Instead of growing microorganisms in liquid fermentation tanks, the platform cultivates bacteria, fungi and yeasts on solid substrates made from biomass residues.

According to the company, more than 170 microbial strains have been tested on Zyft, spanning bacteria, fungi and yeasts. Zymofix said the platform is intended for microorganisms that are not always well-suited to conventional liquid fermentation.

“Finding a promising microorganism is only part of the challenge. The harder part is manufacturing it consistently, efficiently and at the volumes the market requires,” said Emile Redant, co-founder and CEO of Zymofix.

The company said it has spent four years developing Zyft and has now completed pilot-scale validation. The Deinze facility will allow it to move from technology development and validation into industrial manufacturing.

Multinational input companies among customers

Zymofix currently works with more than 15 customers, with agriculture representing a major part of its business. Most of its customers are multinational agricultural input companies developing microbial products as part of their portfolios.

The company’s programs include biostimulants, biofertilizers and biocontrol products. It is also working on applications in bioremediation and other industrial markets where microorganisms need to be produced at commercial volumes.

Rather than developing its own microbial strains, Zymofix operates as a manufacturing partner. Its services cover process development, fermentation, formulation and scale-up, allowing customers to move microbial products from development toward commercial production.

The company said demand from its existing customer base has already exceeded the production capacity of its current operations. The new facility is expected to increase output for existing programs while allowing Zymofix to take on additional projects.

Series A backs industrial expansion

The Series A was led by First Imagine!, with participation from existing investors VP Capital, HTGF and The Nest Family Office. Zymofix said the €6 million ($7.0 million) investment in the initial Deinze facility will be financed in part through the equity round and in part through revenue from existing customer programs.

The planned second phase would require an additional €25 million ($29.2 million) and is contingent on successful commissioning of the initial production line.

Boris Dorin, a partner at First Imagine!, said that the ability to consistently manufacture microbial products at industrial volumes and competitive prices remains a constraint for the sector.

“Zymofix has done the hard part: it has taken solid-state fermentation from a laboratory technique to a validated platform that industrial customers already depend on,” Dorin said.

VP Capital, which participated in the company’s earlier funding, is also continuing its investment. Mathijs van der Knaap, investment manager ventures at VP Capital, said Zymofix had progressed from technology development toward a manufacturing business with established customer demand.

Workforce to expand alongside production

Zymofix was founded in 2022 and currently employs about 35 people. The company expects that figure to rise to approximately 45 by the end of 2026 and 60 by the end of 2027 as it expands manufacturing, technical and commercial operations.

The planned production scale-up could give Zymofix a larger role in the supply chain for microbial agricultural products. At full planned capacity, the company estimates that its Deinze operation could manufacture enough product to cover approximately 10 million hectares.

The expansion also reflects a broader shift in agricultural-input development toward biological products, where the ability to manufacture microorganisms economically at a commercial scale is becoming an important part of product development and commercialization.