From Data to Matter: Venture Capital Turns To The Bioeconomy

(World Bio Market Insights) As VC cash tightens, biotech may soon eclipse digital tech -- ... Bloomberg NEF’s taxonomy slices the burgeoning climate tech segment into eight applications areas: the energy transition, transport and new mobility, agriculture and land-use, climate and forests, decarbonising industry and buildings, and the circular economy and new materials.

Biomaterials can directly serve three of these: the energy transition (through biofuels), to agriculture and land use (through new bio-based farming inputs), and new materials (such as Bolt Thread’s platform for lab-cultured clothing textiles).

Temasek’s rapid accumulation of bio-based climate tech assets chimes with a moment when cracks are starting to show in the two-decade-long love affair between digital tech and corporate venture capital.

The fact that the bioeconomy cuts across two key investment segments may see it through the worst of the incoming recession. It lies at the intersection of climate tech – which has sustained investor interest through the difficult first half of 2022 – and bio-tech, an emerging area for venture capital. At a moment when big tech is falling out of favour with investors and consumers alike, a significant restructuring of capital flows towards sustainable biotech may be in order over the coming decade. READ MORE