Ashley Beckwith has spent several years of her academic and professional career focusing on the intersection of biology, materials, and manufacturing to build healthcare solutions more efficiently. She decided to change direction when she realized that this technology could be applied to plants and plant-based materials, an area of great need.
“Life on Earth is only as safe as the global plant population, and today our plant populations are truly at risk,” Beckwith told TechCrunch. “About 40% of our plant species are at risk of extinction. Forest landscapes undisturbed by humans have decreased by 12% (2022). “These plant resources are under pressure from all sides.”
Beckwith launched Foray Bioscience in February 2022, leveraging what he knew about biomanufacturing, the process of using microorganisms and cell cultures to produce biological molecules and materials on a commercial scale. The company uses biomanufacturing to grow plant-based ingredients, seeds, without harvesting. And molecules.
Beckwith said biomanufacturing has been around for about 100 years, but until now there haven't been many practical uses for plants. Because each plant species is so different, there has been no one-size-fits-all approach to cell culture, making biomanufacturing through plant cell culture difficult. Foray seeks to change this through a database approach. This provides predictive insights and experimental direction to help speed up the research and development process for each plant species.
“At Foray, we are developing advanced tools for factory-free production to demand less resources and give more back,” Beckwith said.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup has raised a $3 million seed round led by ReGen Ventures, an Australian company focused on enabling technologies that help restore Earth's resources. Engine Ventures, Understorey Ventures and Superorganism also participated in this round. The startup has now raised $3.875 million in total funding and plans to build a team.
Beckwith said it took time to raise funding because what the company is trying to do doesn't fit neatly into one category, but rather falls into many categories, from manufacturing to biology to conservation. This “odd ball” feeling is something Beckwith is used to running. She initially founded her company because she had no home base for the research she was doing in the field of plant biomanufacturing, she said.
“I was in this weird interdisciplinary bubble,” Beckwith said. “By the time he was finishing his PhD, that really became clear. For this research to move forward and evolve, it needed to continue to the next iteration. Because the field was new, there was no real fit for it in an academic or manufacturing environment. “We had to create our own space.”
She described taking science out of the lab and starting a company as a “long journey.” The startup is currently working with other companies to help customers set up biomanufacturing by designing their research and development roadmaps and supporting them in developing commercialization strategies.
Beckwith also has a vision that this work will allow Foray to build a gene bank system for plant seeds, especially those that are not easy to record, and allow new seeds to grow from just a few cells. This will also help conservation efforts.
There are many similarities between Foray's technology and mission and the rise of lab-grown meat and seafood. Although the science is not exactly the same, it has the same goal of replacing the products and resources humans are accustomed to getting from nature with lab-grown options that are less harmful to the natural environment, Beckwith said. Lab-grown meat is a little further along in the journey, but Beckwith is optimistic about Foray's future.
“As populations grow and demand for natural resources increases, it is critical that we utilize our natural resources as efficiently as possible and sustain them over the long term,” Beckwith said. “These tools allow us to overcome the natural constraints that exist in the wider world and get more from less, reducing our footprint on these natural resources while still providing access to the goods we need to survive as a society. ”
