Unibio raise $15million in an oversubscribed equity round ahead of a planned institutional investment later this year

West Hill are delighted to report that flagship portfolio company, Unibio International, has raised $15million in an oversubscribed equity raise, where investor demand exceeded double the target raise. The bridge round is expected to precede a larger institutional financing, to be handled by one of the world’s best-known banks, planned for later this year. 

Unibio is a leading sustainable protein systems company, that uses microbial fermentation technology to convert natural gas into a high quality, sustainable protein product. The Company is addressing the global need for new sustainable sources of protein for fish and animal feed, without inflicting the devastating impact farming (for soybean) and fishing (for fishmeal) have on the environment. Unibio enables protein production to be decoupled from fishing and farming, as a significant part of the world’s protein production can be transferred from agricultural and oceanic systems to the fermentation industry. 

The Company’s innovative and patented U-Loop technology produces a high-quality single cell protein (Uniprotein) at commercial scale from natural gas, an abundant raw material, and has received EU approval for feed. It is Unibio’s mission to deliver a highly sustainable alternative protein source for farming and fishing practices globally. Unibio’s technology is highly resource efficient in respect of land and water usage and is sustainable. The Company’s high quality Uniprotein® product has been approved by the EU for animal and fish feed and is certified organic by Organic Farmers & Growers Ltd, the leading organic certification control body approved by the UK Government.

The Company allows the production of Uniprotein under licence using their patented U-Loop fermenter. The first commercial scale production plant was built in Baltic Russia, operated under licence and the Company intends to rollout to numerous additional industrial plants, with licences and joint ventures in North America, Europe, Middle East and Asia. Demand for Uniprotein is extremely strong and off-take agreements were signed in 2020 potentially totalling cUS$200million in sales revenue to Unibio. 

West Hill identified Unibio several years ago as a company with significant upside potential with its cheaper, greener, more sustainable and hugely scalable source of protein to feed a growing population. Mitsubishi subsequently invested in 2019 with the intention of developing a strong partnership with Unibio to rollout projects on a global scale.

David Henstrom, who recently joined Unibio as CEO from Cargill commented;

‘Unibio is uniquely positioned, with a sustainable protein that can be produced at an industrial scale, adding value to feed markets worldwide. They have license or production agreements with partners in three continents. I look forward to helping accelerate their expansion in the years ahead.’

Jan Boeg Hansen, Unibio Chairman, commented;

‘It has been an extremely busy and successful year for Unibio, with the commencement of industrial production and the completion of the capital raising.

The confidence placed in us by our shareholders is testimony to the strong story that Unibio has to tell and now that David has joined us we are working hard to continue the development of Unibio at a high pace.’