Solving the Scale Problem: Inside Evologic’s Biotech Manufacturing Model
- Dr. Wieland Reichelt
- Jul 7
- 5 min read
Article in partnership with Evologic Technologies an Austrian company developing and optimising fermentation processes from pilot to scale-up and industrial manufacturing of living microbe formulations.
The biotech revolution that will disrupt manufacturing industries and realize the vision of a healthier, safer and more sustainable future has been “just around the corner” for years now. Massive research efforts and capital investments have been made over the last decade to identify and engineer the most prospective biologicals to accelerate the impact of the biotech industry, led by a belief that bio-based solutions offer insatiable source of novel products. However, the commercial success of fermentation based manufacturing technologies is currently limited to the pharmaceutical industry, while other industries (food, agriculture, energy, materials, etc.) are largely missing out, delaying the biotech revolution for another day. What is stopping it from happening now?
From Peak Hype to Real Doubts – The Biotech Boom That Didn’t Deliver
The hopes were high and the hype was palpable in 2010s and early 2020s, backed by significant advances in strain screening and engineering. Such tides enabled companies like Gingko Bioworks, Amyris and Zymergen to secure massive funding - $2.3 billion, $487 million and $883 million, respectively. The outcome – Amyris and Zymergen filed for bankruptcy in 2023, , barely two years after peaking in market value, while Ginkgo is now trading as a penny stock. The fallout sent shockwaves across the industry and cast doubt on whether biotech could live up to its transformational narrative. While many complexities might have been involved in the performance of these biotech companies, there is one common thread – the low success rate from translating thrilling technologies into economically scalable bioproducts.
Essentially, the innovation pipeline was front-loaded – rich with potential but constrained by a lack of technological capacity to bring products to market at commercially viable scales. With an ever-expanding list of prospective bioproduct candidates and a lack of technological solutions to actualize their potential, the biotech industry sits in a standstill.
Untapped Potential – Case Study: Agriculture
Nowhere is this missed opportunity more visible than in agriculture. The mounting challenges of modern agriculture are already widely known: climate change, soil degradation, increasing world population, biodiversity loss, pesticide resistance, urgent need to decarbonize, and increasing consumer demand for sustainably produced food.
The agrochemical segment is especially starving for innovation. In the last 25 years, the number of active substances in the EU has decreased 50%, while at the same time, the rate at which novel products are introduced is showing a decreasing trend – not just in the EU, but globally.
Biological agricultural inputs offer effective and sustainable solutions to the numerous challenges modern agriculture is facing. Their benefits are substantiated by decades of R&D and large body of scientific evidence. Just in the EU, research institutions receiving funding have published more than 3000 publications in the agriculture and biological sciences category, investigating a wide range of bioproduct prospects and their effects. It is not only the scientists that are pulling, but also the market demand. The global agricultural biological input market is projected to grow from $17.42 billion in 2025, to $44.70 billion by 2032, with a CAGR of 14.41%.
However, despite the projected growth and increasing demand, farmers are still a long way from being able to go fully bio. Biologicals comprise only a small fraction of the ag input market, and the current data on their performance and quality after they leave production facilities is rather limited. The existing meta studies and industry reports indicate significant inconsistencies if efficacy and low product quality standards. The recurring theme seems to be – products that have shown promising results in lab scale are failing to perform once faced with reality of industrial manufacturing and application requirements. Taking also into account the relatively high product price, it is evident why the commercial success of bioproducts in agriculture is lagging.
Manufacturing Technologies Limit the Full Potential of Biologicals
The efficacy of biologicals is out of the question – vast sources of reliable data are proving it, so the primary constraint isn't biology itself, it’s the way it is currently being made. Most biologicals are produced through fermentation and formulation – which usually require significant capital investments in pricy equipment and technological development. As it is far cheaper to utilize existing capacities compared to building new ones, the more compatible the production process is to existing facilities, the higher the probability that the product will scale and reach markets. However, instead of delivering more cost competitive products and easing market entry, this approach largely resulted in wasted resources (with an exemption of Bacillus products). As it turned out, current manufacturing and correlated biotechnological platforms are quite limited in what they can grow and very difficult to scale. Being able to deliver only a narrow biological portfolio with significant scalability challenges, these technologies are excluding a vast portion of solutions that could hold the key to breakthroughs in productivity and resilience.
As quality is difficult to quantify reliably, costs are commonly prioritized in the transition from research to scale. The results are products that struggle (ofc not on the label) with shelf life and delivery making them unreliable for global agricultural distribution and application. Unlocking the true potential of biologicals requires a new approach to manufacturing – one that can deliver diverse products and is based on consistently delivering quality at scale.
How Evologic Made It
Evologic Technologies has recognized the necessity to reinvent the way bioproducts are produced and delivered. Their passionate team of scientists and engineers has set out to build a different kind of production platform – one that could scale biological innovation with uncompromising quality. Through years of cross-disciplinary collaboration, technological development, and persistent iteration through numerous projects, Evologic consistently proves that excellence in manufacturing is pivotal for the commercial success of biologicals.
The pillars of this success are proprietary fermentation and formulation technologies, supported by a robust analytical backbone, bioprocess engineering expertise and a vast pool of equipment that can be used for quick comparison of different unit operations. Understanding the complex interplay of biology and industrial manufacturing, Evologic has built scalable manufacturing technologies able to deliver any biological product, anywhere in the world. Achieving the largest in-vitro arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) production and becoming the world’s largest producer of stabilized Gram-negative bacteria for seed application has solidified Evologic as a leading expert in biomanufacturing and provider of enabling technologies.
The Next Challenge: Let’s Build the Future, Together
Maybe the biotech revolution won’t happen tomorrow, but manufacturing technologies are stepping to the forefront and putting gears into motion – one bioprocess at a time. As every revolution is a result of collective action, what comes next can’t be built in isolation. If you are working on next-generation biologicals, innovative formulations, difficult-to-produce microbes, R&D or commercialization projects, Evologic can turn your potential into real-world products.
Contributing Author: Dr. Wieland Reichelt
Wieland Reichelt founded Evologic Technologies in 2016 as a spinout from the Technical University of Vienna, securing initial investments to develop novel manufacturing technologies for biologicals. With a vision to reinvent how biologicals are made, he has driven the diversification of Evologic’s offering to expand its impact across multiple industrial applications.
