ScaleUp Bio Precision Fermentation CDMO

ScaleUp Bio is a Singapore-based contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) specialising in precision fermentation for food, nutrition and specialty bio-based ingredients. It describes itself as Singapore's first precision fermentation CDMO and is backed by ADM and Fusionopolis Ventures (FVPL). It addresses a key bottleneck for alternative protein startups: access to food-grade fermentation capacity between lab and commercial scale.

Services cover process development, scale-up from 10 L to 100 L, 1,000 L and 10,000 L in cGMP food-grade facilities, and custom manufacturing with flexible minimum order quantities for early offtake. Downstream unit operations include centrifugation, tangential flow filtration, chromatography, solvent extraction, spray drying and freeze drying. Clients are food tech startups, research institutions and established companies.

• Process development: customised design and optimisation for each ingredient or nutrition application.
• Scale-up production: pilot and demonstration runs at 10 L, 100 L, 1,000 L and 10,000 L.
• Custom manufacturing: flexible minimum order quantities for early offtake.
• Downstream processing: centrifugation, TFF, chromatography, solvent extraction, spray and freeze drying.
• Regulatory and quality support: food-grade cGMP operations to support approvals.
• Two Tuas sites: a Fermentation Joint Lab with A*STAR SIFBI and a commercial demonstration plant.

• Vietnamese biotech startups scaling microbial proteins or enzymes before investing in a local plant.
• Food and dairy companies producing pilot batches of fermented ingredients for regulatory dossiers.
• Universities in Vietnam transferring fermentation research into pilot-scale production.

• Proven scale-up: Nourish Ingredients scaled its process from 100 L to 10,000 L with ScaleUp Bio.
• Higher yields: in one European project, yield rose by 431% and final product volume by 587% across five runs.
• Lower unit cost: an Asia Pacific client cut unit economics by 88% within two pilot runs, according to the company.
• Capex-light growth: clients access cGMP food-grade capacity without building their own plant.

Precision fermentation startups across Asia Pacific struggle to find food-grade capacity for pilot and early commercial batches, which slows regulatory filings and offtake deals. Singapore's food security strategy and novel food framework have made it a regional base for shared fermentation infrastructure.

ScaleUp Bio Pte Ltd, 21 Tuas West Drive, Singapore; backed by ADM and Fusionopolis Ventures (FVPL), a subsidiary of Economic Development Innovations Singapore. Partners and clients cited on its site include Nourish Ingredients, Aio Bio, Biotix and A*STAR's SIFBI through the Fermentation Joint Lab.