Alkion BioInnovations

Alkion BioInnovations (formerly Alkion BioPharma) is a French startup developing a patented biostimulation process to produce sweet proteins for the agri-food and nutraceutical markets. The company was formed following the acquisition of Alkion BioPharma by Evonik Industries in March 2017, with a focus on developing pharmaceutical and agri-food solutions.

The process involves plant tissue culture in bioreactors, resulting in the growth of stable callus that serves as the basis for growing specific plant organs responsible for sweet protein production. The company's natural sweetener, derived from Mabinlin II in the Capparis Masaaki plant, is 300x sweeter than sugar. Its sweetener portfolio also includes thaumatin, brazzein, pentadin, and stevia. The company also focuses on producing flavors like vanillin, saffron, nootkatone, valencene, and plant proteins like duckweed (Lemna).

As of October 2023, all of Alkion BioInnovations' food ingredients were at the proof-of-concept stage. The company aimed to produce ten tons of sweet proteins per year during the initial industrialization phase.

Key customers and partnerships

From January 2019 to December 2020, Alkion BioInnovations collaborated with FranceAgrimer, a national agriculture agency, and received a EUR 718,000 (~USD 760,756) grant for its NeSweetGen program. The program focused on two sweetener production methods: biostimulation of Capparis biomass in bioreactors and recombinant protein production.

Funding and financials

In June 2022, Alkion secured a EUR 5 million (~USD 5.3 million) grant from the European Commission as part of the EIC Accelerator to establish a pilot biorefinery for large-scale production of recombinant proteins.