BIO STUDIO PROJECT
Yeti Foods
Yeti Foods aims to create an initial minimum viable product (MVP) of a holistically engineered mycoprotein meat alternative. The MVP will demonstrate the potential of the project's platform technology and serve as the basis for fundraising and the establishment of a spin-out company at the end of the project.
About the Bio Studio program
The Bio Studio Program supports world-class entrepreneurial academic researchers in translating their science into innovative products and solutions. The program’s projects will join BII and establish a team working in BII’s office and lab space alongside other Bio Studio projects and start-ups. Bio Studio projects will be supported by a tailored program to develop the teams’ entrepreneurial and commercial competencies and by dedicated BII anchors to help guide project progression.
"Irina Borodina is a Professor in Yeast Metabolic Engineering at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Her research focuses on advancing the methodologies for metabolic engineering of yeast cell factories for the sustainable production of bulk and high-value chemicals. She received a Chemical Engineering degree from the Kaunas University of Technology in..."
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"Tue Rasmussen is the Owner and Managing Director of TURA Consult, a business consultancy for tech start-ups and scale-ups within industrial biotech and food tech, and an Entrepreneur in Residence at BioInnovation Institute for the Yeti Foods project. He has over eight years of experience with global business development at industry giants Novozymes and Chr. Hansen and has also worked for almost five years as th..."
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Interview with Tue Rasmussen
Why have you decided to join Yeti Foods as an Entrepreneur in Residence?
My focus is impact. Yeti Foods addresses a space with significant societal and environmental effects and an untapped commercial potential. Our food systems account for more than 30% of the global greenhouse gas emissions, and with a continuously growing population combined with a staggering rise in the number of people living with food insecurity, we must rethink how we can produce food in a more planet-friendly way.
What is your role as an Entrepreneur in Residence?
I function as the project CEO of Yeti Foods, responsible for leading the team, all commercial activity, equity fundraising, and company creation at the end of the program.
What attracted you to become a part of BII’s entrepreneurial community?
BII catalyzes bio-entrepreneurial endeavors in Denmark as it brings founder-friendly funding and significant experience to help entrepreneurs bring innovative solutions to the market. BII also strongly focuses on the area that lies close to my heart – planetary health, i.e., using advanced biotechnology to help produce the food, agricultural products, and materials needed for a growing population without depleting our planet’s resources.
What are some of the biggest learnings from your career that you bring to your position as an Entrepreneur in Residence?
The critical thing I brought from my former job as a start-up entrepreneur was the experience of having complete ownership of a project. When something is not working, the team must double down and solve it. And if nobody in the group has the skill set or motivation to do that, then it falls on you to lead the way.
What are some of your near-term plans for this new role?
For Yeti Foods, we’re on a journey of technology development. We have three years to build our technology platform and showcase products to convince and excite investors and industry partners. That strategy needs to be aligned over the past months. It is primarily a matter of executing critical tasks while continually getting investor and partner feedback on our progress to refine our approach.
How have previous experiences shaped your approach to the role of Entrepreneur in Residence?
The one I would like to highlight is people. I have seen motivated individuals and teams completely change the trajectory of a business. Complex challenges are much easier to face with empowered people on board.
“Yeti Foods addresses a space with significant societal and environmental effects, and there is also an untapped commercial potential. Our food systems account for more than 30% of the global greenhouse gas emissions, and with a continuously growing population combined with a staggering rise in the number of people living with food insecurity, we must rethink how we can produce food in a more planet-friendly way.”
“We are pleased to add Yeti Foods to our Bio Studio portfolio, drawing on Irina’s successful track record and expertise as an innovative and entrepreneurial Principal Investigator. Synthetic biology holds the potential to exploit and develop new resources to produce sustainable, affordable, and nutritious foods and tap into a global meat alternative market that is set for exceptional growth in the coming years.”
“We are delighted to be collaborating with BII to translate our research into a product. Meat alternatives on the market are highly processed, inherently costly, and lack complex flavor. Our vision is to create food products, tailor-made on the molecular level to provide the desired flavor, texture, and nutrition people are accustomed to, but also to support several of the UN sustainable development goals, positively impacting the planet.”
