On Wednesday, May 27, the bio-industrial start-up, Chromologics, won the BII Acceleration Award at DemoDay. It was the culmination of three month’s intensive work in the Business Acceleration Academy program, where six start-ups have developed the commercial side of their scientific discoveries.

Chromologics, a spin-out from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), is developing a fungal biotech platform to produce natural colorants in a more sustainable way, starting with the color of red. It is based on the wild type organism filamentous fungi, which means that no genetic engineering has been involved, and it is compatible with most dietary needs, including kosher, halal, and vegan diets. ​Read more in this interview.

It was co-founder and CEO Gerit Tolborg, who delivered the 7-minutes pitch that convinced the audience to cast a vote in her direction.

“We are so excited! And we see this as yet another sign that we are on to something. As a start-up, it is sometimes shaky ground, but in the BAA program, we have learned a lot about the things we are not that good at yet. We have an exciting journey ahead of us”, says Gerit Tolborg. The team also consists of co-founder and Ph.D. Anders Ødum and Fermentation Scientist, Louise Bakke Jørgensen.

The start-ups’ anchor person at BII, Senior Business Developer Christian Brix Tillegreen, has followed the team closely during the BAA program. All six start-ups have worked with topics such as customer identification, IP rights, business model and marketing.

“The team has progressed their commercial understanding tremendously. We have had several iterations of the business model and strategy and they have a very solid case today”, Christian Brix Tillegreen says.

The next step for Chromologics is to expand the team with profiles in regulatory and business development and they are actively looking for profiles.

“As part of the program, we have been able to tap into a huge network and get in touch with the right people which is crucial for us”, says Gerit Tolborg.

Want to watch Chromologics’ pitch? Watch the broadcast from Demoday.

Learn more about the five other start-ups that pitched at DemoDay:
Health tech start-up: Paragit Solutions
Therapeutics start-up: FertilityPro
Therapeutics start-up: BOOST Pharma
Health tech start-up: WARD 24/7
Bio-industrial start-up: SecondCircle