From rice paddies in Vietnam to fermentation tanks in New South Wales, a growing number of Asia-Pacific startups are turning microbes into powerful climate tools.
These tiny organisms are helping tackle some of the region’s biggest emissions challenges. Think bacteria that cut methane from rice fields, fungi that lock carbon in soil, and engineered microbes that turn food waste into protein, plastic, or dye.
Below are 6 companies using biology to decarbonise food, materials, and manufacturing across the region.
The South Korean startup is developing carbon-negative biofertilizers that use naturally occurring soil microbes to increase rice yields while reducing the need for synthetic fertilisers. Their first product, set to launch in 2025, is based on beneficial bacteria that support plant growth with fewer chemical inputs.
Rice farming is a major contributor to methane and nitrous oxide emissions across Asia. Orbicle’s solution is designed to cut these emissions and improve soil health, directly tackling a significant climate challenge in the region. Countries like Vietnam and Thailand, where rice is a dominant crop, are key target markets. By reducing reliance on synthetic fertilisers, the product also helps lower emissions tied to their manufacturing.
In 2024, Orbicle secured pre-seed funding from 500 Global to further develop its technology. The team, led by CEO Taek-Yoon Lee, brings experience from South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, and top U.S. universities. Orbicle is positioning itself as a leading player in microbial fertilisers for Asian rice farming, drawing a parallel to what Pivot Bio has done for corn in the United States.
The Aussie startup makes microbial seed coatings, known as CarbonBuilder, that introduce specific fungi to crops like wheat, barley, and canola. As the plants grow, these microbes help channel more atmospheric CO₂ into stable forms of carbon stored in the soil.
Soils are one of the largest natural carbon sinks. By increasing carbon storage in croplands, Loam’s approach helps turn farms into carbon removal systems while also improving soil health and resilience to drought. This offers benefits for both climate mitigation and long-term productivity. Given the scale of agriculture across the Asia-Pacific, the technology gives farmers a practical way to contribute to carbon drawdown.
In 2023, Loam raised A$105 million (about US$73 million) from investors including Lowercarbon and Horizons Ventures. CarbonBuilder is already commercially available in Australia, and the company is working with farmers through its SecondCrop carbon projects. Founded by a team of agronomists and scientists, Loam is now preparing to scale its microbial carbon platform globally.
Bluepha is a Chinese synthetic biology company making fully biodegradable plastic, known as polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), through microbial fermentation. Their process feeds carbon-rich materials like plant oils to bacteria, which naturally store PHA inside their cells. Once harvested, this PHA is processed into resins that can be used in packaging, agriculture, textiles, and even 3D printing.
Most plastics come from fossil fuels and pose serious disposal challenges, from landfill buildup to ocean pollution. Bluepha’s PHA offers a different path—it is carbon-neutral and breaks down in soil or marine environments within months. In China, the largest producer and consumer of plastics, scaling alternatives like this could reduce oil demand and lower emissions. Since waste management is also a climate issue, PHA helps close the loop by turning carbon-rich waste into usable plastic that safely returns to nature.
Bluepha has moved quickly from lab research to industrial production. In 2021, it raised $30 million to build a plant with a 5,000-ton annual capacity. The company also claims to have cut the cost of PHA production by half compared to industry norms, a crucial step toward competing with traditional plastics.
The Japanese biomaterials pioneer makes silk and other structural proteins through fermentation, offering a sustainable alternative to plastics and animal-based materials. By engineering microbes to convert plant sugars into fibrous proteins, Spiber creates materials that mimic the strength and flexibility of spider silk. These fibers, branded as “Brewed Protein,” can be used in textiles, composites, and other applications across fashion and manufacturing.
While polyester relies on fossil fuels and natural fibers like silk and wool require intensive farming, Spiber’s process uses renewable feedstocks and is designed for a lower carbon footprint. The company is building a production facility in Thailand that uses cassava as an input, aiming to significantly reduce emissions compared to conventional nylon production.
Founded in 2008, Spiber is one of Japan’s earliest biomaterial success stories. It raised over $300 million in 2021 and has launched pilot products in partnership with The North Face and Lexus, including a jacket and concept car parts. A core strength lies in its proprietary microbial strain library and fermentation process, protected by a wide portfolio of patents.
Newera Bio uses synthetic biology to create sustainable dyes for textiles by engineering microbes to produce vivid pigments like red, yellow, and indigo. These naturally derived pigments are enhanced through proprietary processes to meet the durability and colourfastness standards required by the industry, making them a direct substitute for conventional synthetic dyes.
Textile dyeing is one of the world’s most polluting industries, contributing up to 20% of global wastewater and a sizeable share of emissions for the entire textile industry. In the Asia-Pacific region, where a large portion of textile manufacturing takes place, Newera’s approach offers a way to reduce chemical runoff and lower the energy demands of dyeing processes.
Founded in 2023, Newera has quickly moved into production. Its BioFresh dyes in red and yellow are already being manufactured at ton scale, while BioInfuse indigo is currently in pilot trials with textile mills. In October 2024, the company raised seed funding from Main Sequence, Melt Ventures, and UNSW Founders to expand its fermentation capacity in New South Wales.
Cauldron is building a network of fermentation hubs to help partners produce high-value ingredients, like food components and sustainable materials, using microbes. Unlike traditional batch fermentation, Cauldron has developed a continuous “hyper-fermentation” process that keeps microbes running without frequent stops. This approach allows smaller, modular fermenters to operate around the clock with high efficiency, making fermentation more scalable and cost-effective.
Many climate-friendly products, from alternative proteins to bioplastics and biofuels, depend on microbial fermentation. Cauldron’s platform tackles one of the biggest challenges: how to scale this process affordably. By reducing downtime and cutting energy use, its continuous method lowers both the cost and environmental footprint of production. This opens the door for more local startups to make bio-based products at competitive prices, supporting the region’s shift away from petrochemical manufacturing.
In March 2024, Cauldron raised A$9.5 million in Series A funding led by Horizons Ventures, with backing from Main Sequence, SOSV, and In-Q-Tel. The company is expanding its 25,000-liter demonstration facility in New South Wales and plans to build the largest precision fermentation network in the Asia-Pacific. Its continuous system has already run for over eight months without contamination, a first in the field, demonstrating its potential for industrial-scale reliability.