twig

About twig

Founded in late 2022 by Dr. Russ Tucker, Dr. James Allen, and Dr. Satnam Surae, Twig is a London-based bioengineering company that uses an AI-first approach to create sustainable alternatives for ingredients in everyday consumer goods. The company aims to replace environmentally harmful ingredients, such as those derived from fossil fuels or intensive farming like acetone and palm oil, with bio-fermented substitutes.

The founding team combines scientific, technological, and commercial expertise. Dr. Tucker, who serves as CEO, previously founded the cultivated meat company Ivy Farm and worked at Boston Consulting Group. Dr. James Allen, the Chief Science Officer, holds a biochemistry doctorate from Oxford and has experience in chemical bio-manufacturing research at University College London and the global manufacturer Invista. Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Satnam Surae, holds a doctorate in computational engineering and previously worked on multi-omics data processing. The three came together to establish Twig, which emerged from stealth mode in September 2023 with £3 million in seed funding from investors including Project A, Seedcamp, and Zero Carbon Capital.

Twig's proprietary technology platform, twig:tech, integrates machine learning and robotics to accelerate the research and development process. This platform has three core pillars: 'Bio:Builder' creates the biological building blocks for new ingredients; 'Grow:Bot' is a robotics system that automates the manipulation and analysis of tens of thousands of microbe variations; and 'ML:Bridge' is the AI that analyzes data from the other two pillars to recommend pathway improvements and guide scientific direction. This system significantly reduces the time and cost compared to conventional bioengineering, which can take years to develop a new ingredient strain. The company's business model is centered on developing these production-ready microbes and licensing the resulting high-yield, scalable ingredients to producers of consumer goods.