As part of this highly selective global initiative, Terra Oleo is advancing microbial technology to create sustainable alternatives to palm oil derivatives and cocoa butter for use in personal care, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and food.
Palm oil and cocoa supply chains are under strain from climate instability, regulatory pressures, and limited land. In 2024, cocoa’s end-of-season stocks fell 26% and futures prices reached record highs, while global palm oil exports dropped 5.83% year-over-year amid rising demand and production constraints. These pressures are driving up costs and supply volatility, leaving producers and consumer goods companies in urgent need of alternatives. Terra Oleo’s technology meets this need by reinventing how lipid ingredients are produced.
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Terra Oleo’s tunable platform harnesses precision fermentation to transform agro-industrial waste into sustainable palm oil ingredients and cocoa butter alternatives. Backed by deep synthetic biology and microbial engineering expertise, the platform delivers tailored lipid profiles for high-value palm and cocoa applications, while eliminating energy-intensive refining steps and toxic byproducts of conventional processes. This approach overcomes the limits of natural microbes, delivering superior unit economics and faster market adoption than other solutions.
With strong process economics and deep market networks built alongside the conventional palm industry, Terra Oleo is uniquely positioned to deliver scalable, high-performance alternatives. At full scale, its technology could eliminate up to 900 million tons of CO₂ annually from palm oil and cocoa supply chains, accelerating decarbonization across personal care, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and food.
The company has already signed product testing agreements with several global and regional leaders in oleochemicals, food, personal care, and cosmetics. With validation underway and demand accelerating, Terra Oleo is preparing to scale from lab to market with products designed to match or surpass conventional performance.
To date, Terra Oleo has raised US$3.1 million from ADB Ventures, The Radical Fund, Elev8.vc, Better Bite Ventures, a strategic corporate investor from the palm oil industry, and other investors. Terra Oleo was co-founded by Shen Ming Lee, Boon Uranukul, PhD, and Min Hao Wong, PhD, who together bring complementary strengths in science, industry, and strategy to advance the company’s mission to decarbonize palm oil and cocoa.
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