🎙️ A Green Genie to Grant Your Biomass Yield Wishes

“Could we scale to gigatons and hit the price point of crude oil?”

This week, I had the pleasure of chatting with Nick Hazell, founder and CEO of Algenie, and previously the founder and CEO of plant-based food company v2food.

I love the power of this question. It cuts to the heart of the challenge for all biomanufacturing: achieving scale while keeping costs low. (For reference, crude oil costs roughly 50c per litre or $80 per barrel in AUD.)

While Nick is deeply passionate about food and its impact on the planet, his career actually began in aerospace.

"I was making confidential secret spy stuff."

After completing his engineering degree and masters at Cambridge, Nick started out as an aerospace engineer. Then, he heard about an opportunity at the Mars chocolate factory and thought, I like chocolate!—a decision that led him into food R&D. He spent time in both the Netherlands and Australia, where his focus shifted from chocolate to innovation and sustainability.

"When organizing a conference on sustainability and food in Australia, and bringing climate scientists into the discussion, I learned just how dire the situation was."

From Mars, Nick moved to Pepsico, where he tackled the dual challenges of health and sustainability. He successfully reduced salt and saturated fat in several products—earning an award for his efforts. Following a redundancy, he transitioned into academia and private consulting, deepening his expertise in food innovation.

The v2food Journey

In 2018, CSIRO approached Nick about a new food spinout developing a plant-based alternative to meat. The mission immediately resonated with him, and with his background in innovation, food, and sustainability, he was a natural fit. Nick became a founder and quickly stepped into the role of CEO at v2food.

"We needed people to like the product, and it needed to be cheaper than meat."

v2food scaled rapidly. In October 2019, it launched its first product in partnership with Hungry Jack’s (Burger King's Australian franchise). Just a year later, its mince and burger products hit Australian supermarkets, and international expansion followed soon after.

One of Nick’s proudest achievements at v2food was getting the strategy right from day one. By leveraging existing distribution channels into fast food and supermarkets, v2food was able to get to market quickly and iterate on its product. However, despite the momentum, they faced significant headwinds.

"Getting meat-eaters to switch to plant-based is hard."

While v2food gained traction, it struggled to achieve its goal of replacing 1% of the meat market. Economic challenges and supply chain disruptions ultimately led to the closure of its largest manufacturing facility. Around this time in 2023, Nick was exploring a specific algae-derived pigment for v2food products. But the economics didn’t stack up, prompting him to take a closer look at how photobioreactors were designed and operated.

The Birth of Algenie

"Manufacturing can become a net positive by using CO2 as a feedstock."

In July 2023, Nick left v2food and launched his own company—Algenie. Unlike v2food, which was an existing business he stepped into, Algenie was built from the ground up. Instead of focusing on food, he wanted Algenie to be a “picks and shovels” B2B company.

One of his key insights was that traditional phototubes in algae farms had poor efficiency in exposing algae to light. If he could increase the surface area for photosynthesis, he could drastically improve the efficiency of the entire system. This led to the development of Algenie’s helix photobioreactor.

Having made helical pasta at home, Nick thought: How hard could it be?

“Turns out, extruding plastic into a helical shape is extremely hard.”

This challenge has been Algenie’s toughest to date. But after successfully developing a scalable process for helical extrusion, they now have a photobioreactor with a significantly expanded surface area for light exposure. Staying true to his approach at v2food, Nick is keen to get the technology into customers’ hands as soon as possible. Algenie will be delivering its first bioreactors in the coming months and is looking for additional B2B partners.

I'll leave you with one final thought from Nick:

"When you take carbon out of the air and use it to make consumer products, it becomes an efficient carbon capture process—especially if those products eventually return to the ground. Consumerism becomes sustainable!"

Nick’s Ask for the Community

As I do with every interview, I asked Nick if he had an ask for the community. He had three:

1. If you’re considering getting started in biomanufacturing, consider algae or cyanobacteria as your organism of choice.

2. If you’re already working with algae, Nick would love to connect.

3. And of course, if you know someone who wants to invest in a solution to climate change, let Nick know!

Nick’s story is a fantastic example of how deep technical expertise, curiosity, and a willingness to challenge existing paradigms can lead to meaningful innovation. If his work resonates with you, reach out!