The Problem
The biomanufacturing and sustainable materials sector faces a critical bottleneck: investors and founders make high-stakes decisions with incomplete information.
- Investors: Due diligence is slow, expertise-heavy, and struggles to compare diverse technologies. Hidden risks surface too late.
- Founders: Current techno-economic models are simplistic. Teams don’t know when, how, or why to scale — leading to wasted capital and stalled innovation.
Both sides need structured, dynamic frameworks to evaluate technical feasibility, scale-up pathways, and commercial readiness.
The Solution
We’ve developed an AI-agent platform for biomanufacturing investment intelligence — combining strategic simulation with automated due diligence. Multi-agent digital twins simulate operations, validate claims, and benchmark performance across technical, financial, and sustainability dimensions.
- For diligence: Validate claims, identify risks, and forecast business potential to quantify investment readiness.
- For execution: Track performance in real time, model scenarios, and optimize decisions across product and operations.
Three Core Services
Investment Readiness Assessment
- Automated technical diligence via agents (manufacturing, materials, bioprocessing, regulation).
- RAG-enabled validation against literature, patents, FDA/EPA/REACH, ESG standards.
- Outcome: Standardized risk scoring + scenario-based forecasts.
Scale-Up Viability Analysis
- Multi-agent simulation from pilot to commercial scale.
- Role-based agents (Engineer, CFO, Supply Chain) negotiate trade-offs.
- Stress-tests: feedstock shocks, capex demands, competitive pricing.
- Outcome: Probability-weighted path-to-profitability.
Real-time Business Monitoring
- Continuous KPI benchmarking (yield, cost, throughput).
- Early-warning alerts for bottlenecks, cash burn, regulatory flags.
- Competitive and demand intelligence.
- Outcome: Proactive, data-driven portfolio management.
Why This Works
Proven foundations: Validated at Biofabricate’s Biofair (2025) via interactive simulations; tested with 10+ founders.
Technical architecture: Role-specialized agents (Designer, Scientist, Engineer, CFO, Compliance), retrieval-augmented intelligence, evaluation workflows, and sensor-data integration.
Key differentiator: Generic AI summarizes; we simulate decisions — think AlphaGo for biomanufacturing strategy.
Business Model & Market
Revenue: SaaS tiers ($50K–$300K+), per-assessment licensing ($5K–15K), future operational twins ($50K–200K/engagement).
Targets: Biomanufacturing investors (e.g., Breakthrough Energy, Lux, DCVC Bio, DSM Ventures, Superorganism), accelerators (IndieBio, Activate, Greentown Labs), agencies (ARPA-E, DOE, USDA).
Early traction: Prototype piloted with Biofabricate stakeholders; active talks with sustainability-focused investors.
The Ask & Use of Funds
Seed Round: $2.5M to build platform and capture market leadership.
- Team (50% / $1.25M): Domain specialist, front-end engineer, ML engineer.
- Product (30% / $750K): Agent library (fermentation, algae, cell-free), real-time data APIs, no-code customization, domain contractors.
- Go-to-Market (20% / $500K): Top-25 VC sales, accelerator partnerships, case-study marketing.
18-month milestones: 12 institutional clients; 150+ assessments; 40% faster diligence; 25% improvement in investment accuracy; first portfolio companies using decision-assistance internally.
Why Now
- Regulatory pressure (ESG, EU taxonomy, SEC climate) demands verifiable metrics.
- Capital scarcity requires faster signal-from-noise separation.
- AI maturity enables reliable, domain-specific multi-agent simulations.
Founding Team
Orkan Telhan, PhD — Founder, Design.bio
- Ex-CIDO, Ecovative — led Data Systems & Intelligence; $4M+ R&D data infra for mycelium leather; scaled biomanufacturing for mycelium-based food.
- Co-founder, Biorealize — 0→1 product deployment, hardware-as-a-service.
- Former tenured Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania.
- President, Biodesign Challenge.
- PhD, MIT Design & Computation; SM, MIT Media Lab.
Contact
Email: orkan@design.bio
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/orkan-telhan