Green Bioactives

Green Bioactives is a Scotland-based company focused on manufacturing plant biomolecules using plant cell culture technology. GBL-Memory is the company's first nutraceutical product, a patented dietary supplement ingredient containing fructooligosaccharides (non-digestible, short-chain carbohydrates naturally found in many plants) and L-theanine (an amino acid found in green tea), which have been shown to improve overall memory. The ingredient can be used in dietary supplements and food and beverage products.

The company's plant cell culture technology involves the isolation of primary vascular stem cells from plant leaves. These cells are grown on solid media with the necessary nutrients and growth hormones to promote proliferation independent of the host plant. The proliferated cells are then transferred to liquid media and cultured for further scale-up. The company had plans to launch its first two products in 2H 2023.

The company was growing cells in less than 50 liters as of December 2022 and had plans to scale the technology beyond lab scale and into 200,000-liter production. The company also works in partnership with other companies, providing its expertise in plant cell culture to develop products with natural ingredients that meet their customers’ needs.

Key customers and partnerships

In July 2023, Green Bioactives partnered with the Harke Group, a distributor in the life sciences, chemical, and plastics industries, to market and sell GBL-Memory in countries across Central and Eastern Europe. 

Funding and financials

In December 2022, Green Bioactives raised GBP 2.6 million (~USD 3.1 million) in seed funding led by Eos Advisory to expand the capabilities of its management, production, and research teams, enabling the company to demonstrate its biomanufacturing approach at scale and pursue new sector-specific commercial partnerships. In October 2020, Green Bioactives received a GBP 200,000 (~USD 234,000) grant from Innovate UK to accelerate the development of its plant cell biomanufacturing platform and deliver plant bioactive ingredients in a sustainable manner.