ZYMVOL raises €1.3 million in seed funding to catalyze the widespread use of industrial enzymes

ZYMVOL, biotech company on a mission to democratize the industrial use of improved, sustainable enzymes, has raised its first Seed funding of €1.3M led by Elaia Partners european VC firm.

Since its founding in 2017, ZYMVOL has participated in over 80 projects with global clients and engaged in active collaborations with key agents from the pharmaceutical, chemical and food industries.

Now, with a team of more than 20 and offices both in Barcelona and Boston, the company is ready to take the next steps: from scaling the business, increasing its workforce and inaugurating a new lab space at the Barcelona Science Park, to maximizing the potential of its own portfolio of enzymes, with applications in areas such as sustainable material production and degradation, as well as creating better ingredients for food and cosmetics.

“Computational enzyme design is an industry changer with a vast array of applications. With Zymvol, we are proud to back experts in enzyme engineering that can deliver across multiple sectors which face challenges such as: accelerating drug production, recycling polymers or need to consume drastically less water and energy.” states Sébastien Lefebvre, Partner at Elaia.

A Software that mimics Nature

For decades, various industries have used enzymes’ biocatalysis to improve the properties of their products (e.g. detergents with better stain-removal power, lactose-free milk, etc), as well as to substitute polluting, traditional catalysts. But an enzyme must be first engineered to withstand the factory environment, as significant changes in pressure and temperature can render them useless. 
The process of engineering an enzyme would take months -even years- of lab work, which makes it rather expensive. So here is where ZYMVOL makes the difference thanks to its Computational Technology which, compared with traditional, lab-only methods, is capable of producing better results in half the time - and at a fraction of the cost. 

The secret lies in its proprietary software, which uses computer simulations to mimic the conditions of the protein in nature, produce millions of in silico enzyme variants and test in the lab only what matters.

Furthermore, the company is also able to discover enzymes for a target reaction without prior knowledge. This means opening the door to potential projects that know which target chemical reaction they want to achieve, but don’t know there might be an enzyme for it.

“Biocatalysts have proven to be an effective solution in reducing emissions and harmful chemicals in industrial production, but it is still under-used due to the complexity of its implementation”, states Maria Fátima Lucas, Zymvol’s CEO. “With ZYMVOL, we strive to make enzymes accessible to everyone, so green chemistry becomes the new norm”.