［Health Science domain］
The KIRIN HEALTH INNOVATION FUND Invests In bitBiome, A Company Engaged In Biomanufacturing Through Use Of Proprietary Microbial Data
- CSV
February 12, 2025
Kirin Holdings Company, Limited
TOKYO, February 12, 2025 - Kirin Holdings Company, Limited (Kirin Holdings) announced today that it has invested in bitBiome, Inc. (bitBiome) through the KIRIN HEALTH INNOVATION FUND (KHIF), a corporate venture capital (CVC) fund established jointly with Global Brain Corporation (Global Brain), a leading independent venture capital firm.
bitBiome is a start-up company from Waseda University that analyzes microbial genes in the environment to discover and improve genes useful for industry. The company's technology has enabled it to identify complex microbial genes with high precision and to build its own microbial gene database. In August 2024, in collaboration with Twist Bioscience, an overseas company, bitBiome launched its first in-house product, an enzyme screening kit*(2). Through this investment, we aim to create new value in the health science field by combining our fermentation and biotechnology technology with bitBiome's superior microbial genetic data platform.
1 Bio-manufacturing is a new form of manufacturing that uses the power of biology to contribute to decarbonization and SDGs by artificially designing biological functions by combining the components of living organisms such as cells and genes. It is expected to replace traditional food production, chemical synthesis-based material production, and energy production.
2 Screening kit for transaminase enzymes Enzyme Screening Kit | Twist Bioscience(https://www.twistbioscience.com/products/libraries/enzyme-screening-kit?tab=overview)
The Kirin Group has formulated a long-term management concept, Kirin Group Vision 2027, which calls upon the Group to become a global leader in CSV*3 by 2027 by creating value in domains ranging from food & beverages to pharmaceuticals. To achieve this goal, in addition to its existing Food & Beverages and Pharmaceuticals business domains, Kirin Holdings has launched and is fostering a new Health Science domain that will contribute to people's health based on the advanced fermentation and biotechnology that the Kirin Group has cultivated over many years.
3 Creating Shared Value: combined added value for consumers as well as for society at large.
About bitBiome, Inc.
bitBiome is a biotechnology company unlocking the full potential of our planet’s microbes to power the future of the bioeconomy. bitBiome’s platform is built on their proprietary single-cell microbial genome analysis technology, bit-MAP ®, which has enabled the creation of bit-GEM: an extensive and groundbreakingly diverse microbial database of over 2.2 billion sequences, sourced primarily from environmental samples and containing sequences not present in public databases. Leveraging their expertise in bioinformatics and machine learning, the company also offers a comprehensive enzyme discovery and engineering platform, bit-QED, which encompasses the identification, assessment, and modification of enzymes through wet lab evaluation and directed evolution. bitBiome is committed to improving existing biomanufacturing industries and creating new ones by delivering sequences and enzymes that cannot be found anywhere else.
About the KIRIN HEALTH INNOVATION FUND
Through the KIRIN HEALTH INNOVATION FUND, Kirin Holdings intends to invest in startups around the globe that have innovative technologies and business models for resolving health issues, and to leverage their advanced health science technologies and solutions for improving customer experience. By combining the Kirin Group’s wealth of assets and competence in health science with innovations and technologies that startups will bring to partnerships, Kirin Holdings will be better able to bolster its existing Food & Beverages domain as well as step up efforts to launch new businesses in its Health Science domain.
About Kirin Holdings
Kirin Holdings Company, Limited is an international company that operates in the Food & Beverages domain (Food & Beverages businesses), Pharmaceuticals domain (Pharmaceuticals businesses), and Health Science domain (Health Science business), both in Japan and across the globe.
Kirin Holdings can trace its roots to Japan Brewery which was established in 1885. Japan Brewery became Kirin Brewery in 1907. Since then, the company expanded its business with fermentation and biotechnology as its core technologies, and entered the pharmaceutical business in the 1980s, all of which continue to be global growth centers. In 2007, Kirin Holdings was established as a pure holding company and is currently focusing on boosting its Health Science domain.
Under the Kirin Group Vision 2027 (KV 2027), a long-term management plan launched in 2019, the Kirin Group aims to become “A global leader in CSV* creating value across our world of Food & Beverages to Pharmaceuticals.” Going forward, the Kirin Group will continue to leverage its strengths to create both social and economic value through its businesses, with the aim of achieving sustainable growth in corporate value.
*Creating Shared Value: Combined added value for consumers as well as for society at large.
Company Overviews
(1) About the KIRIN HEALTH INNOVATION FUND
| Fund name | KIRIN HEALTH INNOVATION FUND (registered as KIRIN and GB Investment Limited Partnership) |
|---|---|
| Primary sector for investment | Startups around the globe operating in the health science domain |
| Established | March 2020 |
| AUM | 5 billion yen |
| Investment period | 10 years |
| General partner | Global Brain Corporation |
(2) About Global Brain
| Company name | Global Brain Corporation |
|---|---|
| Head office | SHIBUYA AXSH 2-17-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0002, JAPAN |
| President | Yasuhiko Yurimoto |
| Established | January 1998 |
| Primary business | Venture capital business |
| URL | https://globalbrains.com/en |
(3) About bitBiome
| Company Name | bitBiome, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Location | Bldg. 121, Waseda University, 513 Waseda-Tsurumaki-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Research Innovation Center Room 415 |
| Representative | Representative Director Yuji Suzuki |
| Establishment | November 2018 |
| Primary business | Provision of bio-manufacturing platform utilizing proprietary database of microbial genes and manufacturing and sales of in-house products |
| URL | https://bitbiome.bio/ |
GALLERY
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「KIRIN HEALTH INNOVATION FUND」