UK startup explores fruitful opportunities in Australia

When it comes to the map of potential growth markets for UK-based company LyteGro, X certainly marks the spot on Australia where one industry’s food waste can be converted into the biotech start-up’s treasure.

LyteGro uses waste bananas to produce BacLyte, a microbial growth enhancer that improves the performance and yield of important industrial processes such as fermentation.

With around 75,000 tonnes of banana waste ending up in landfill across the country each year, Australia is a gold mine of opportunity for the pioneering company, which is looking for a location to set up its first factories outside the UK.

LyteGro was established in 2015 by CEO Dr Andrew Lee and Professor Mark Lyte, whose work at Texas Tech University had uncovered the potential wrapped inside the blackened skin of an overripe banana.

Using a water-based extract he had invented, Professor Lyte showed Dr Lee the astonishing accelerating effects it had on bacteria and yeast growth.

“I'd been doing a lot of work in industrial biotech, diagnostics, food production, and other areas that would benefit from something which encouraged microbial growth and sped microbially-driven processes up,” Dr Lee said.

“I'd been working with Mark on another invention and he showed me the results of his experiments with bananas and I was amazed, I thought this could be absolutely transformative for industrial biotechnology.”

The award-winning biotech startup has already gained significant traction for its industry validated and patented products.

This includes trials and evaluations which are underway in countries across the world including Denmark, Thailand, Indonesia, Argentina, Costa Rica and the United States.

In Australia, LyteGro has created valuable connections with producers such as the Sweeter Banana Company, investors and researchers at universities like Queensland University of Technology, and government agencies including the Department of Primary Industries in Western Australia.

LyteGro is looking to explore its target markets of distilling, enzyme and vaccine, yeast and probiotic production in Australia, while also looking into BacLyte’s potential to deliver a sustainable solution for the mining industry by enhancing microbial performance in bioleaching processes. Australia is also placed as the best market to investigate the potential for LyteGro products to be applied in the agriculture sector, due to the importance the Australian economy places on rural industries and the support networks in place.

Dr Lee said while their focus was on a number of international markets, gaining a foothold in Australia was a “number one priority” for the company.

“We're not just doing things in Australia, but Australia is our number one priority out of UK and Europe at the moment,” Dr Lee said.

“Internationally we’re about to start commercial production with a Spanish contract manufacturer for the UK and European market.

“But we’re also about to close a finance round and essentially what we want to do with some of that money is to open an Australian subsidiary and get some test materials made there to get into the hands of Australian customers.

“Another massive factor is that Australia's got a banana waste problem. It’s a huge untapped resource and we've got a way of making a lot of value from that resource, so it's a case of problem meets solution.”

BacLyte forms the basis of a range of products that act as yeast or bacterial accelerators.

Dr Lee said the technology delivers a win for banana producers and the end users of their products, as well as the environment, potentially slashing the 900,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide produced in Australia each year when waste bananas are sent to landfill.

“Our mission is to address the huge global environmental and social issue of banana waste by making high-value microbial growth enhancers that can be used to improve the profitability and sustainability of the bio-economy – whilst also adding value to banana farmers,” Dr Lee said.

“Our solution can turn one tonne of waste bananas into at least $40,000 of product. We plan to pay banana farmers for their waste, giving them a new and immediate new revenue stream, whilst also diverting waste from landfill and thereby reducing CO2 emissions.”

BacLyte has been extensively trialled and shown to deliver unique growth and metabolism promoting effects in key bacterial and fungal species used by the chemical, diagnostic, pharmaceutical and food and drink industries.

This enables end-users to grow bacteria, yeast or fungi in half the usual time and with less inputs, reducing their resource, water and energy footprint. 

For distillers, this can mean halving their fermentation time whilst also increasing alcohol yield by 10-20 per cent thereby increasing the output of their distillery  by up to 140 per cent and without the costs associated with physical expansion.

The same situation applies to yeast and probiotic producers who can also double the yield of production cultures, which in turn halves the amount of culture media needed. This again enables huge cost savings and water use and allows for an immediate CAPEX-free doubling of output.