Mycofeast acquires Daisy Lab as New Zealand precision fermentation specialist enters new chapter

Mycofeast has acquired New Zealand precision fermentation company Daisy Lab, bringing the Auckland-based developer of dairy-identical proteins into a biotechnology group with research operations in California and industrial manufacturing capacity in Europe. The deal follows five years of development at Daisy Lab, which has achieved high yields of lactoferrin, demonstrated production at 500-liter scale and previously outlined plans to commercialize its technology through licensing agreements with established dairy processors.

• Mycofeast acquires Daisy Lab, adding precision-fermented dairy proteins and an Asia-Pacific presence to its operations.
• Daisy Lab has achieved multiple grams per liter of lactoferrin and demonstrated fermentation at 500-liter pilot scale.
• The deal follows Daisy Lab's earlier plans to license its technology to dairy manufacturers and pursue Series A investment.

The acquisition, announced on October 15, adds another specialist business to Mycofeast, which was founded in 2023 and has since expanded through acquisitions and organic development. Its operations include Evolutia Bio in California, where researchers use AI-assisted discovery, high-throughput screening and genetic engineering to develop biological production systems, and a European fermentation facility with 16 million liters of capacity.

For Irina Miller, Daisy Lab Co-founder & CEO, the transaction comes roughly 18 months after she spoke to Protein Production Technology International about the company's plans to establish itself as a technology supplier to the global dairy industry.

At that point, Daisy Lab had six employees, had raised US$1.5 million in seed funding and was preparing to seek Series A investment. It was also developing a demonstration facility incorporating a 500-liter fermenter and downstream processing equipment, with completion expected in early 2026.

The latest announcement confirms that Daisy Lab has demonstrated its technology at 500-liter pilot scale. It also provides a different route to further development, with the company gaining access to Mycofeast's scientific, engineering and manufacturing operations rather than having to assemble those capabilities independently.

“We built Mycofeast to move faster than biotechnology traditionally has,” said Witek Hruzewicz, CEO of Mycofeast.

“The sector has no shortage of exceptional science. The harder problem is connecting that science with process development, industrial manufacturing, capital and commercial markets quickly enough – and with economics that actually work.

“Daisy Lab brings a strong dairy-protein platform, proven scale-up capability and a talented New Zealand team into that system. It is highly complementary to what we are building.”
Daisy Lab was founded in 2021 with an initial focus on producing dairy proteins through precision fermentation. Its technology uses microorganisms to manufacture proteins that are molecularly identical to those found in cow's milk, without relying on milk as the source material.

The company has developed the ability to express four types of casein, beta-lactoglobulin and lactoferrin. Its earliest research concentrated on bulk dairy proteins, particularly beta-lactoglobulin, before it expanded into lactoferrin at the end of 2023.

That decision reflected the commercial difficulties facing developers of fermentation-derived proteins, particularly when competing with conventional dairy ingredients produced at substantial scale and relatively low cost.

In the Q2 2025 edition of PPTI, Miller explained why Daisy Lab had changed its research priorities. “Lactoferrin is a high-value molecule that occurs only in small quantities in cow’s milk,” she said. “We can produce it in amounts that significantly reduce production costs. To achieve this high yield, we partnered with a third-party organization to accelerate our research.”

Lactoferrin is a bioactive protein used in infant formula, dietary supplements, functional foods and nutraceuticals. It is associated with iron binding and immune function and is valued for its antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties.

Conventional extraction is complicated by its low natural concentration in bovine milk, typically around 0.02-0.2g per liter. The ingredient can command prices reaching several thousand US dollars per kilogram, depending on purity, making it an attractive target for precision fermentation companies seeking products with higher commercial value.

In May 2025, Daisy Lab announced that it had produced multiple grams per liter of bovine lactoferrin using a yeast host. The result demonstrated substantially higher protein concentrations than those naturally present in cow's milk, although commercial production costs also depend on fermentation performance, purification requirements and other processing expenses.

The achievement followed the company's earlier work on beta-lactoglobulin and established lactoferrin as its lead development program.

At the time, Miller told PPTI that Daisy Lab had no intention of competing directly with conventional dairy producers. Its commercial plans depended instead on supplying technology that established manufacturers could incorporate into their existing operations.

“We don’t see ourselves as disruptors of the dairy industry, but rather as enablers, helping the industry to futureproof its supply and to diversify its offerings,” she said in May 2025.
The company intended to license its strains, fermentation methods and downstream processing protocols to food and beverage manufacturers, with particular interest in dairy processors that already possessed relevant equipment and technical expertise.

Miller believed those businesses could have an advantage over new entrants because some of their existing downstream processing infrastructure could be adapted for fermentation-derived ingredients, potentially reducing the investment required.

It was a practical approach for a small biotechnology company operating in New Zealand, where the dairy industry plays a major role in the national economy.

Miller also saw little reason to relocate the company's scientific operations overseas, despite its ambitions to serve international customers.

“It makes sense to keep our R&D (or at least some of it) in New Zealand,” she told PPTI. “I don’t see that any part of our R&D scaleup would require us to move elsewhere. But on the sales side, we’ve adopted a global outlook from the start: as we are selling technology and not a physical product, our target customers are global companies.”

The acquisition by Mycofeast does not necessarily rule out that licensing approach, although the announcement places greater emphasis on developing Daisy Lab's technology within the group's existing operations.

Mycofeast has been assembling capabilities across strain development, biosynthesis, enzyme design, fermentation scale-up and industrial production. Its portfolio already includes carotenoids, functional molecules and other biologically produced compounds.

Evolutia Bio serves as its research operation, applying high-throughput screening and genetic engineering to the development and optimization of production strains. The group's European manufacturing capacity provides an industrial component to those activities.

Daisy Lab adds expertise in recombinant dairy proteins, fermentation engineering and downstream processing, as well as a presence in New Zealand's established dairy and food-production sector.

The transaction also gives the Auckland team access to resources that would have been difficult and expensive to develop as an independent business.

“Over the past five years we have done what an early-stage biotechnology company needs to do: prove the science, improve the process, demonstrate scale-up and understand where the commercial opportunity sits,” Miller said in the acquisition announcement.

“What becomes much less rational is trying to build every capability around that technology yourself.

“Mycofeast gives us access to a much broader scientific, manufacturing and commercial platform while allowing the expertise developed by the Daisy Lab team to contribute across a much larger organisation.”

The comments are consistent with some of the challenges Miller described during PPTI's earlier interview.

In 2025, Daisy Lab was working with a relatively small team while simultaneously improving lactoferrin production, preparing its demonstration facility and planning its next funding round.

The company had secured US$1.5 million in seed investment in 2023, but Miller confirmed at the time that no further funding had been raised. A Series A was planned for later in 2025, although the acquisition announcement does not specify whether that round subsequently took place.

The newly announced transaction offers another way to access capital-intensive development and manufacturing capabilities. It also connects Daisy Lab with a company that has made acquisitions a central part of its growth strategy.

For Mycofeast, the addition of lactoferrin provides an established development program in a category where fermentation-derived ingredients can potentially address supply limitations associated with conventional dairy extraction.

Lactoferrin is particularly interesting because its applications are already established, unlike some novel proteins that require manufacturers to develop new products and markets around unfamiliar ingredients.

However, producing it competitively at industrial scale still requires more than achieving high yields in laboratory or pilot fermenters. Purification, product consistency, regulatory requirements and the ability to manufacture at commercially acceptable costs remain important considerations.

Mycofeast's broader manufacturing and process development capabilities are intended to support that progression, although no timetable has been announced for commercial production of Daisy Lab's lactoferrin.

As part of the acquisition, Daisy Lab's founders will take on roles within the wider Mycofeast Group, extending their responsibilities outside the New Zealand business.

The lactoferrin program will continue, with the Auckland team working alongside Evolutia Bio's researchers in California and Mycofeast's engineering, manufacturing and commercial operations.

“Biotechnology can address markets far beyond any single product category,” Hruzewicz said.

“Our objective is to build the infrastructure and organisation capable of repeatedly taking biological innovation from concept to commercial production. Daisy Lab strengthens that platform in an area where we see substantial long-term opportunity.”

Financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

(From left, Daisy Lab co-founders Dr Nikki Freed, Irina Miller and Emily McIsaac. Photo credit: Matt Quérée)

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