Venturing
The venture capital arm of dsm-firmenich is committed to investing in innovation with purpose. Explore our approach to venturing.
Our venture capital portfolio
Browse our portfolio – packed full of startups with the key to unlocking progress for people and planet.
- Health, Nutrition & Care
- Animal Nutrition & Health
- Taste, Texture & Health
- Perfumery & Beauty
- Science & Research
- Legacy
- Main exits (past five years)
Enhanced Medical Nutrition (EMN)
Founded: 2016
Invested: 2023
Investment Director:
Arpesh Mehta
Description: EMN builds clinically validated nutrition products to help patients prepare better for and recover faster from medical procedures.
Focus area: Focus area: Pharma / Medical nutrition
CollaMedix
Founded: 2018
Invested: 2023
Investment Director:
Arpesh Mehta
Description: CollaMedix is developing a platform based on proprietary technology to reconstitute collagen into threads with high tensile strength and bio-inductive properties to produce devices for orthopedic and gynecological applications.
Focus area: Biomedical
VitaminLab
Founded: 2016
Invested: 2023
Investment Director:
Scott Horner
Description: VitaminLab is a personalized supplement company that uses actionable health data to provide general consumers, wellness companies, and healthcare practitioners with personalized dietary supplements.
Focus area: Personalized nutrition
Aavia
Founded: 2016
Invested: 2022
Investment Director:
Arpesh Mehta
Description: Aavia is a platform company that has developed a personalized app to help young women, particularly the Gen-Z demographic, monitor symptoms to track physical, mental, and hormonal health, especially when it comes to their menstrual cycle.
Focus area: Personalized Nutrition
OK Capsule
Founded: 2019
Invested: 2021
Investment Director:
Scott Horner
Description: OK Capsule was founded by a doctor with more than 20 years of experience in primary medical practice, naturopathy, and business innovation. OK Capsule’s enterprise platform is the foremost solution for companies and brands to formulate, sell, and deliver personalized supplements at any scale.
Focus area: Personalized Nutrition
Claya
Founded: 2018
Invested: 2021
Investment Director:
Arpesh Mehta
Description: Claya (doing business as Rootine) creates precision micronutrient formulas tailored to your body. Rootine empowers members to leverage their data to achieve optimal health and peak performance.
Focus area: Personalized Nutrition
NC Biomatrix
Founded: 2019
Invested: 2021
Investment Director:
Philip Mertens
Description: NC Biomatrix’s innovative product is a medical therapy able to restore the natural biomechanics of the spine, alleviating the common cause of low back pain.
Focus area: Biomedical
Feral
Founded: 2016
Invested: 2021
Investment Director:
Akshat Kshetrapal
Description: inne by Feral is a biotech startup based in Berlin, with a mission to help women track their hormones in a more accurate, convenient way. The inne minilab is the world's first at-home hormone monitoring system, using saliva.
Focus area: Personalized nutrition
Octarine Bio
Founded: 2018
Invested: 2021
Investment Director:
Akshat Kshetrapal
Description: Octarine Bio is perfecting a biological approach to producing natural, novel, and improved cannabinoid and psychedelic molecules with tailored modes of action.
Focus area: Dietary supplements / Novel functional ingredients
Sun Genomics
Founded: 2016
Invested: 2021
Investment Director:
Scott Horner
Description: Sun Genomics is a microbiome health company focused on curing dysbiosis through personalized probiotics.
Focus area: Personalized nutrition
Phynova
Founded: 2002
Invested: 2020
Investment Director:
Akshat Kshetrapal
Description: Phynova is a life-sciences company specializing in developing and commercializing unique, scientifically proven health ingredients, powered by plants.
Focus area: Dietary supplements / Novel functional ingredients
Ripple Therapeutics
Founded: 2020
Invested: 2020
Investment Director:
Arpesh Mehta
Description: Ripple Therapeutics was founded based on the discovery that drugs can be engineered into controlled-release pharmaceuticals without the use of polymers or excipients. By delivering the right amount of drug for the right amount of time, it can improve patient safety and clinical outcomes.
Focus area: Biomedical
Hyalex Orthopaedics
Founded: 2016
Invested: 2019
Investment Director:
Arpesh Mehta
Description: Hyalex Orthopaedics develops transformational synthetic cartilage technology and implant systems for diseased and damaged joints.
Focus area: Biomedical
Miach Orthopaedics
Founded: 2016
Invested: 2018
Investment Director:
Pieter Wolters
Description: Miach Orthopaedics is committed to improving the outcomes of patients with musculoskeletal injuries using bio-engineered scaffolds and techniques that are validated in clinical trials.
Focus area: Biomedical
Java Foods
Founded: 2011
Invested: 2018
Investment Director:
Philip Hul
Description: Java Foods provides high-quality and nutritious food from local products at affordable prices in Zambia and neighboring countries.
Focus area: Malnutrition programs & partnerships
Life Boost
Founded: 2014
Invested: 2018
Investment Director:
Scott Horner
Description: Life Boost (doing business as Tespo as part of Perigon Health) is a digital health platform that monitors medication compliance through a WiFi-connected medication dispenser and related APIs, providing crucial information to patients and stakeholders.
Focus area: Personalized nutrition
ATRO Medical
Founded: 2016
Invested: 2017
Investment Director:
Philip Mertens
Description: ATRO Medical has developed an anatomically shaped meniscal implant that reduces pain, increases mobility, and improves the patient’s quality of life.
Focus area: Biomedical
ZeaVision
Founded: 2000
Invested: 2014
Investment Director:
Scott Horner
Description: ZeaVision develops and markets science-based supplements and vision care products containing all-natural Zeaxanthin to support healthy vision and prevent vision loss.
Focus area: Dietary supplements / Novel functional ingredients
Frontier Nutrition
Founded: 2016
Invested: 2017
Investment Director:
Philip Hul
Description: Frontier Nutrition develops, manufactures, and markets innovative and exciting products that address the critical needs of millions of families in low-income communities around the world.
Focus area: Malnutrition programs & partnerships
NutriLeads
Founded: 2012
Invested: 2015
Investment Director:
Akshat Kshetrapal
Description: NutriLeads develops food ingredients with clinically demonstrated health benefits. The lead ingredient, IMPP-1, supports immune function and improves resistance to infections.
Focus area: Dietary supplements / Novel functional ingredients
Athian
Founded: 2022
Invested: 2023
Investment Director: Scott Horner
Description: Athian is the developer of a carbon credit insetting marketplace focusing on livestock farming. The company's cloud-based platform benchmarks, validates, and certifies greenhouse gas reductions, carbon capture, and energy production, then offers carbon credits via a voluntary centralized marketplace.
Focus area: Sustainability / Carbon credit marketplace
Deep Branch Biotechnology
Founded: 2018
Invested: 2021
Investment Director: Akshat Kshetrapal
Description: Deep Branch is a carbon-dioxide recycling company that uses microorganisms to convert clean CO2 into high-quality products to enable global sustainable animal nutrition. Founded in 2018, the company is a fast-growing startup operating in both the UK and the Netherlands.
Focus area: Alternative protein sources
Cynomys
Founded: 2017
Invested: 2023
Investment Director: Akshat Kshetrapal
Description: Cynomys developed a plug-and-play farm monitoring technology designed to measure environmental conditions in real-time to help farmers achieve their sustainability and animal welfare goals.
Focus area: Precision Farming
AnimalBiome
Founded: 2016
Invested: 2024
Investment Director:
Arpesh Mehta
Description: AnimalBiome is a developer of microbiome-based diagnostics for the pet market and novel functional ingredients based on microbiome science intended to improve the health of dogs and cats.
Focus area: Pet care
MEALA
Founded: 2021
Invested: 2022
Investment Director:
Christina Schwab
Description: MEALA is a company focused on improving the texture and juiciness of plant-based meat alternatives. MEALA’s functional protein platform enables food formulators to develop better-for-you products with an authentic meaty texture and bite while prioritizing clean labeling.
Focus area: Taste, Texture & Health
Paleo
Founded: 2020
Invested: 2023
Investment Director:
Philip Mertens
Description: Paleo creates animal-free heme proteins through precision fermentation for plant-based meat and fish alternatives, which makes them look, smell, and taste like traditional meat and fish.
Focus area: Taste, Texture & Health
Phytolon
Founded: 2018
Invested: 2022
Investment Director:
Christina Schwab
Description: Phytolon is an Israel -based biotech startup that has developed fermentation-based natural food colors to address the need for healthy, efficient, and sustainable natural food-coloring alternatives for use in food and beverages.
Focus area: Food colors
Incredo
Founded: 2014
Invested: 2019
Investment Director:
Christina Schwab
Description: Incredo is a leader in the efficient delivery of flavors and improved nutrition, such as sugar-based sugar-reduction, enabling tastier and healthier consumption of sweet foods.
Focus area: Sugar reduction
Chinova Bioworks
Founded: 2016
Invested: 2018
Investment Director:
Arpesh Metha
Description: Chinova Bioworks is transforming the food and beverage industry with a natural, clean-label, shelf-life extender extracted from white button mushrooms.
Focus area: Bio-preservation
Cybele
Founded: 2019
Invested: 2022
Investment Director:
Scott Horner
Description: Cybele is a personalized skincare startup that has developed an artificial intelligence platform to discover a new class of science-based prebiotic skincare products. Through diagnostic testing, Cybele can measure the skin microbiome data of its customers and offer ceramide-inducing prebiotics to improve skin health.
Focus area: Personal Care
Vivici
Founded: 2022
Invested: 2022
Investment Director:
Philip Mertens
Description: Vivici develops and markets fermentative dairy proteins as a substitute for animal-derived dairy proteins, offering unique functionality and nutritional benefits in the alternative proteins market.
Focus area: Alternative dairy proteins
Meatable
Founded: 2018
Invested: 2021
Investment Director:
Akshat Kshetrapal
Description: Meatable is an innovative Dutch food company, aiming to deliver, at scale, a new natural, cultivated meat that looks like, tastes like, and has the nutritional profile of traditional meat.
Focus area: Cultivated meat
Additive Manufacturing Technologies
Founded: 2017
Invested: 2019
Investment Director:
Philip Hul
Description: Additive Manufacturing Technologies Ltd manufactures hardware solutions to enable the industrialization of 3D printing, focusing on post-processing technology.
Focus area: Additive manufacturing 3D printing
Inkbit
Founded: 2017
Invested: 2019
Investment Director:
Arpesh Mehta
Description: Inkbit uses machine vision and AI to deliver a multi-material jetting platform with the speed, precision, and materials required for the most demanding industrial applications.
Focus area: Additive manufacturing 3D printing
Chromatic 3D Materials
Founded: 2016
Invested: 2018
Investment Director:
Arpesh Mehta
Description: Chromatic 3D Materials has invented the next generation of 3D printing materials with the durability to meet requirements for finished manufactured goods.
Focus area: Additive manufacturing 3D printing
Momentous
Invested: 2022
Exit: 2023
Investment Director:
Greg McParland
Description: Momentous is a sports nutrition company with a deep portfolio of innovative products and world-class experts bringing new solutions to the market. Momentous provides world-class performance and health solutions for performance seekers at all levels.
Focus area: Personalized nutrition
Novomer
Founded: 2007
Exit: 2021
Investment Director:
Pieter Wolters
Description: Novomer is a leading developer of conversion technology providing transformable, functional, and low-net-carbon inputs into the production of PHA-based resins and other biodegradable materials, acquired by Danimer Scientific.
Focus area: Resins
S-Biomedic
Invested: 2018
Exit: 2022
Investment Director:
Philip Mertens
Description: S-Biomedic is a Belgium-based life-sciences company pioneering a new approach to the cosmetic and therapeutic potential of the skin microbiome.
Focus area: Personal care
Natreon
Invested: 1998
Exit: 2022
Investment Director:
Greg McParland
Description: Natreon's mission is to bring scientifically studied and tested ayurvedic ingredients to the dietary supplement, personal care, food and beverage, and medical food industries.
Focus area: Dietary supplements / Novel functional ingredients
WattGlass
Invested: 2016
Exit: 2021
Investment Director:
Luda Kopeikina
Description: WattGlass coatings virtually eliminate reflection, glare, and fogging on glass and other transparent materials using a proprietary nanoparticle coating.
Focus area: Solar
Voxel8
Invested: 2019
Exit: 2021
Investment Director:
Luda Kopeikina
Description: Voxel8 develops digital manufacturing systems that revolutionize how footwear and athletic apparel are designed, manufactured, and sold.
Focus area: Additive manufacturing 3D printing
Adaptive3D
Invested: 2019
Exit: 2021
Investment Director:
Luda Kopeikina
Description: Adaptive3D is the premium additive manufacturing polymer resin supplier. It partners with global leaders to deliver solutions for functional end-use products and prototypes.
Focus area: Additive manufacturing 3D printing
Arecor Therapeutics
Invested: 2013
Exit: 2021
Investment Director:
Pieter Wolters
Description: Arecor is a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative medicines for diabetes and other health indications by enhancing and reformulating existing therapies.
Focus area: Pharma
ChromaDex
Invested: 2013
Exit: 2021
Investment Director:
Greg McParland
Description: ChromaDex Inc. provides natural, science-based proprietary ingredients to the dietary supplement, food and beverage, animal health, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries.
Focus area: Dietary supplements / Nutritional ingredients
Isobionics
Invested: 2014
Exit: 2019
Investment Director:
Pieter Wolters
Description: Isobionics is a biotechnology company developing and producing natural ingredients for the flavors and fragrances market, acquired by BASF in 2019.
Focus area: Personal care
Essential Medical
Invested: 2013
Exit: 2018
Investment Director:
Pieter Wolters
Description: Essential Medical is a medical device company that developed and commercialized the MANTA™ Vascular Closure Device, acquired by Teleflex Incorporated in 2018.
Focus area: Biomedical
Ganeden
Invested: 2007
Exit: 2017
Investment Director:
Greg McParland
Description: Manufacturer of probiotic-derived ingredients for food, beverages, and personal care products, acquired by the Kerry Group in 2017.
Focus area: Dietary supplements / Nutritional ingredients
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