Symrise invests in Bond Pet Foods to advance precision-fermentation proteins for pet nutrition

Symrise has invested in Bond Pet Foods as the German ingredients company moved to deepen its presence in precision-fermentation-enabled pet nutrition and expand its sustainable protein offering for pet food manufacturers.

• Symrise announced a strategic equity investment in US-based Bond Pet Foods to support the development and commercialization of animal-identical proteins for pet nutrition.
• The companies said the partnership would combine Bond’s precision-fermentation platform with Symrise’s pet nutrition, taste, and application expertise.
• Symrise said the deal supported its wider goals around portfolio diversification, supply-chain resilience, and more sustainable ingredient development for pet food customers.

The deal brought together Symrise’s established position in palatability and pet nutrition with Bond Pet Foods’ proprietary precision-fermentation platform, which is designed to produce animal-identical proteins for use in pet food, treats, and supplements.

Symrise said the investment would help it respond to growing demand for sustainable and responsibly sourced pet nutrition solutions, while also supporting efforts to diversify protein inputs in pet food. The company also said the partnership would help address broader industry pressures, including supply-chain continuity and the need for more resilient ingredient systems.

The companies planned to co-develop a new ingredient as part of the collaboration, with a focus on supporting the shift toward sustainable options in pet food. Symrise said that included animal-identical protein designed to complement its existing pet food portfolio rather than replace it outright.

For Bond, the deal marked another step in moving its technology closer to broader commercial use. Founded in 2017 and based in Boulder, Colorado, the company has focused on using yeast fermentation and food science to create proteins that match those found in animal-derived ingredients, but without conventional livestock production. It has already worked through a number of development agreements as it built out its platform and moved novel ingredients toward practical application.

For Symrise, the investment reflected a wider push to use biotechnology as a tool for product development across its Taste, Nutrition & Health business. The company said the Bond partnership would strengthen the long-term competitiveness of Symrise Pet Food while reinforcing its sustainability strategy.

Diego Maurizio, General Manager of the Palatability & Nutrition Business Line at Symrise, said the deal aligned with that direction. “This investment marks an important step in advancing our strategy to develop next-generation sustainable ingredients with biotechnology. By combining Bond’s fermentation capabilities with Symrise’s application expertise and market insight, we can deliver high-performance nutrition solutions and create new growth opportunities for our customers,” he said.

That customer focus was central to the logic of the investment. Symrise said the collaboration was intended to give pet food manufacturers broader access to high-quality proteins, while helping them respond to changing consumer expectations around sustainability, responsible sourcing, and ingredient innovation.

The pet food market has become an increasingly active area for alternative protein development, partly because it offers a route to market for functional ingredients that can be formulated around nutritional performance, palatability, and sustainability. Companies working in fermentation-derived proteins have also pointed to pet food as a category where demand for reliable, scalable alternatives may continue to grow as manufacturers look to reduce exposure to supply volatility in conventional animal protein streams.

Bond CEO Rich Kelleman said the Symrise partnership validated the work the company had already put into building that proposition. “We have put great effort into building a new way to produce animal-identical proteins for pet food applications. Now, we find it exciting to see that work gaining traction across the industry,” he said. “Partnering with Symrise marks an important step forward bringing their deep expertise in pet nutrition and taste to further expand how our ingredients perform and can be used by pet food manufacturers.”

That emphasis on performance is likely to be important as the partnership develops. Precision-fermentation companies in pet food have often focused not only on sustainability claims, but also on the ability to deliver ingredients with specific nutritional and functional attributes. In Symrise’s case, its expertise in taste, palatability, and formulation could help determine how such ingredients are ultimately used in commercial products.

Walter Ribeiro, President of Taste, Nutrition & Health at Symrise, tied the investment to the company’s broader biotechnology ambitions. “This investment advances our ambition to scale biotechnology across our business. With this, we aim at effectively supporting long-term resilience, portfolio diversification, and a stronger innovation pipeline,” he said. “By helping our customers develop more sustainable pet food formulations, the collaboration reinforces Symrise’s sustainability commitments and consumer-driven innovation strategy.”

The announcement also added Symrise North America to Bond’s investor base, which already included a mix of biotechnology, ingredient, and pet nutrition backers such as Genoa Ventures, Lever VC, ADM Ventures, Cavallo Ventures, Agronomics, Thia Ventures, KBW Ventures, iSelect Fund, Stage 1 Fund, and Plug and Play Ventures.

While financial terms were not disclosed, the strategic nature of the investment suggested Symrise saw Bond as more than a passive portfolio addition. The companies described the relationship in operational terms, with an explicit plan to combine technology, application know-how, and market insight to bring new ingredients closer to market.

That gave the deal significance beyond a simple funding event. It showed how established ingredient suppliers and emerging fermentation companies were increasingly aligning around specific commercial use cases, especially in categories such as pet food where the search for sustainable, high-performance proteins has become more urgent.

For Symrise, the investment expanded the toolkit it could offer to pet food customers. For Bond, it linked its platform to a global ingredients player with deep category expertise and established routes into the market. Together, the companies said they aimed to accelerate the commercialization of next-generation pet nutrition solutions built around animal-identical proteins and a more diversified supply base.