Strain and technology licensing

You manufacture.
We license.

Non-GMO microalgae strains, matched with the fermentation and downstream processes that make them work at scale. Exclusive rights in your field of use, full technical transfer, and support until the process runs in your plant.
Request the licensing dossier
Book a technical call

Microalgae ingredients fail on cost, not on interest

Demand for algal protein, pigments, beta-glucans and omega-3 lipids is real. Supply is the bottleneck. Phototrophic cultivation is land and light limited, batch quality drifts, and capital cost per tonne stays high. Most producers already know which compound they want to sell. What they lack is a strain that performs in a stirred-tank fermenter and a process that holds its titre from the laboratory to industrial volume.

We license strain and process together, because a strain without its process is not a product.

What we license

Three things, transferred as one package

Proprietary strains

Non-GMO strains selected and adapted in-house for heterotrophic growth, screened for productivity, target compound content and robustness under industrial conditions.
  • Defined master cell bank
  • Full characterisation package
  • No genetic modification

Fermentation, phototrophic and downstream processes

The process that makes the strain economic, whether it runs heterotrophically in fermenters or photoautotrophically in light-driven systems: media formulation, including formulations built on agro-industrial side streams, feeding and control strategy, harvest and downstream route.

  • SOPs and analytical methods
  • Scale-up parameters
  • Substrate cost optimisation

The rights that come with it

Exclusive use within a defined field of use and territory for the term of the agreement, with the freedom to produce wherever it suits you.
  • Exclusivity by field and territory
  • Your plant or your chosen CDMO
  • No tied purchase of inoculum or media
Why license from PhycoFerm

Built to run in an industrial plant, not only in a laboratory

Non-GMO by design

No genetic modification anywhere in the pipeline, which keeps clean label and EU regulatory routes open.

Fermentation, not ponds

Closed heterotrophic fermentation. No sunlight dependency, no seasonality, and full process control.

Runs in assets you already own

Conventional stirred-tank fermentation and standard downstream unit operations. No proprietary hardware to buy.

One transferable package

Strain, process, SOPs and analytics move together, so the technology transfer actually lands.

Circular substrates

Media designed around regional agro-industrial side streams, lowering substrate cost and product footprint.

Regulatory position checked first

We assess novel food status and third-party IP for each target compound before committing to a route, so you do not inherit a blocked product.
Who this is for

If you have capacity, or access to it, this is for you

Microalgae producers

Lift productivity, cut cost per kilogram, or add a fermentation line beside existing phototrophic capacity.

Fermentation manufacturers

Put idle or underused tank capacity to work on higher value products.

Food, nutraceutical and feed brands

Own a differentiated non-GMO ingredient, produced under your own or contracted capacity.

CDMOs

Build an algal biomass offering for your existing client base.
Strain catalogue

Available for licensing today

All catalogue strains are available for licensing now, with commercial specification set jointly with the licensee.

They are non-GMO Chlorella sp. and sit outside the scope of the EU Novel Food Regulation. Beyond the catalogue we work across microalgae more broadly, Euglena and Scenedesmus among them, and on strains you already hold. Regulatory status varies by species, and we establish it during scoping. Identities and process detail under NDA, with fields of use, territories and exclusivity negotiable.

Six agar plates of colour-variant Chlorella strains, from dark green through light green, yellow and orange to near-white

From first call to production

01
Scoping call and NDA
We establish your target strain, volume, market and existing capacity. Fifteen minutes usually tells us whether there is a fit.
02
Technical dossier and term sheet
You receive strain and process data for the relevant platform, together with indicative commercial terms.
03
Feasibility or pilot run
Usually the right step. A defined trial validates the process in your equipment, or at a CDMO, before either side commits to a full licence.
04
Licence agreement
Field of use, territory, exclusivity, upfront technology access fee and a running royalty.
05
Technology transfer and support
Master cell bank, SOPs, analytical methods, commissioning support on site or remote, and continued process optimisation under the agreement.
Yellow Chlorella biomass being transferred from a centrifuge tube during downstream processing
How a license works
Commercial framework

How the deal is usually shaped

Licenses are built around an upfront technology access fee plus a running royalty linked to production volume or net sales, scaled to the field of use, the territory and the degree of exclusivity granted. Where a strain or process needs development before it fits your specification, that work is quoted separately as a fixed-fee project, and what you pay for it reduces the upfront fee.

We deliberately do not publish rates. Terms are set against the value the technology creates in your specific application, and that conversation is better had properly.
Talk terms with us
  • Upfront technology access fee
  • Running royalty on volume or net sales
  • Exclusivity by field of use and territory
  • Optional development phase, credited against the license
Questions we are usually asked

Before you get in touch

No. Every strain in our portfolio is non-GMO, developed through selection, adaptation and non-recombinant improvement methods. This is a deliberate strategic choice, not a limitation we work around.

Our platforms sit at different stages, from laboratory validation through to industrial production with a licensee. We state the current stage of each platform openly in the technical dossier and we do not present development-stage results as commercial performance.

Most of our processes run on conventional stirred-tank fermentation and standard downstream unit operations, and we work photoautotrophically where that suits the strain. Rather than hand you a specification and leave you to it, we assess what you already have during scoping and tell you exactly what, if anything, needs to change.

Case dependent. Depending on the strain and the process, protection rests on some combination of trade secret over strain and know-how, filed applications, and contractual restrictions in the licence. We set out which applies to your platform during scoping. Licensees receive defined use rights rather than ownership.

Yes, within a defined field of use and territory, typically in exchange for minimum performance commitments.

Usually not. We work by preference with strains that carry no novel food barrier in the intended market, so the regulatory path is clear before a licence is signed. Where a target does carry a constraint, we say so during scoping rather than afterwards. Placing the final product on the market remains the licensee’s responsibility, and we support the technical dossier behind it.

Tell us what you want to produce

Send us the compound, the volume you need and the capacity you already have. We will tell you within a week whether we have a platform that fits, or whether it is a development project.
info@phycoferm.com

PhycoFerm Lda., Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, Faro, Portugal

Not the right route?

You want to buy the ingredient, not make it. Bioactive ingredient sales and custom formulations. Go to ingredients

You have a target we have not developed yet. Fixed fee, fixed timeline, full technical handover, and you own complete commercial rights to what we deliver. No royalties. Go to services