Cauldron Ferm announced it has raised $13.25 million in a Series A2 funding round, bringing its total funding to $26 million, while also earning a place on Fast Company’s 2026 list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. The funding round was led by Main Sequence Ventures, with participation from Horizons Ventures, SOSV, and NGS Super. The new capital will be used to expand the company’s proprietary continuous “hyper-fermentation” platform, which is designed to improve productivity and reduce costs in industrial-scale biomanufacturing.
Biomanufacturing relies on engineered microbes to convert simple inputs, such as sugars, into valuable outputs, including food ingredients, chemicals, and nutraceuticals. Cauldron’s platform focuses on maintaining microbes in a highly productive, steady state, enabling continuous production over extended periods. This approach increases output while lowering production costs, making bio-based products more competitive with traditional industrial alternatives.
The company has demonstrated its technology at an industrial scale, achieving continuous fermentation of synthetic biology strains at 10,000 liters. It also operates a 30,000-liter demonstration facility in Orange, Australia, and is working with partners across multiple countries to scale its processes.
The latest funding will support efforts to meet rising global demand for cost-competitive bio-production. Cauldron is collaborating with corporate partners to retrofit existing facilities and deploy its hyper-fermentation technology, while also leveraging government grants in Australia and the United States to expand operations and plan for full industrial-scale production.
The company’s progress comes amid increasing pressure on global supply chains and growing interest in biologically produced materials, with estimates suggesting that up to 60% of physical inputs to the global economy could eventually be produced through biological processes.
Founded in 2022, Cauldron has rapidly advanced from early-stage validation to commercial deployment, earning recognition from global organizations for its potential to transform manufacturing and industrial production.
KEY QUOTES:
“For biomanufacturing to compete in industrial sectors, bioproducts have to deliver on costs, scale, and quality. Bioprocess innovation is how we get there. We’re honoured to be backed by a dedicated group of experienced investors and proud to be recognised as one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. This milestone reflects the impact of our platform at a time when governments and corporations are urgently seeking competitive bio-based solutions to address supply chain pressure.”
Michele Stansfield, Co-founder and CEO, Cauldron Ferm
“NGS Super backed Cauldron because we see advanced biomanufacturing as a powerful secular trend reshaping how critical inputs are produced, driven by supply chain resilience, decarbonisation, and the need for cost competitive alternatives to traditional industrial processes. Cauldron’s continuous ‘hyper-fermentation’ platform is focused on the key constraint in the sector: improving productivity and unit economics at industrial scale. That combination of technology differentiation and real-world commercial validation is why we decided to invest.”
Ben Squires, Chief Investment Officer, NGS Super
“Cauldron is proving that biology can run continuously, predictably, and at the volumes global supply chains demand. Hyper-fermentation closes the gap between breakthrough strains and reliable, cost-competitive production. As long-term deep tech investors – and Asia Pacific’s largest dedicated deep tech venture firm – we see this as a systemic industrial transformation. In a market distracted by AI hype cycles, we’re backing the hard, physical work of scaling biology. That’s what builds enduring companies, and it’s why we believe Cauldron is at the forefront of making bioindustrial manufacturing commercially inevitable.”
Phil Morle, Partner, Main Sequence Ventures
