Bota Biosciences
Bota Biosciences (恩和科技) is a Hangzhou-based synthetic biology and Physical AI company that builds the SAION AI platform and Bota Biofoundry to design, engineer, and industrially produce precision-fermented bio-based ingredients for food, nutrition, personal care, and fine chemicals customers including BASF, Syensqo, NHU, Proya, and Puratos.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersHangzhou, China
- Headcount101–250
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingHardware or Manufacturing
What Bota Biosciences does
Bota Biosciences (恩和科技) is an industrial synthetic biology and Physical AI company founded in September 2019 by Dr. Cheryl Cui in Hangzhou, China. The company builds and operates the SAION AI Physical AI platform — a three-layer system integrating Cognition (multi-scale biological understanding via AI4Science models and proprietary Cell2Cloud datasets), Orchestration (an Agent Harness engine coordinating 316 specialized scientific tools), and Closed-loop Execution (BPL-driven automated wet-lab operation). This platform is anchored by the in-house Bota Biofoundry (Cell2Cloud) which has been operational since 2020, screening 1.5M+ strains per year across 48 bioreactors and generating a proprietary dataset of 10M+ multi-modal closed-loop data points and 1.8B+ process data points. Bota also developed and open-sourced the Biology Protocol Language (BPL) and BPL-COGEN compiler pipeline under MIT License, achieving 95.1% first-pass and 98.6% after two rounds of compiler-simulation on 300 Nature Protocols papers.
The company monetizes across three revenue streams: (1) B2B precision fermentation services and joint development with industrial partners (NHU, Puratos, BASF, Syensqo, Proya, Pechoin, Yili) using a land-and-expand model with multi-year strategic alliances; (2) self-developed branded bio-based product sales through two wholly-owned sub-brands — Yucca Elements for personal care (Prorylia® FN, Re² Coffea Arabica Peptide, ZeaVida) and HeliaGenesis for food/nutrition bio-preservatives (Purtect™ Nisin, Natamycin, ε-Poly-Lysine, Lysozyme); and (3) technology transfer, licensing and commercialization royalties. The company holds an integrated industrial footprint of 130,000 m² with 600+ tons/year capacity across Hangzhou (HQ + LEAP R&D Center), Shandong, and Ordos production sites, plus a US regional office in Lafayette, CA.
Bota was recognized as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers Unicorn (January 2024), selected for the WEF MINDS program (2026), named to Forbes China's AI Technology Enterprise Top 50 (2026), and designated one of Hangzhou's "New Eight Steeds" (2026). The company achieved FDA GRAS certification for ZeaVida® precision-fermented zeaxanthin in May 2026 — a world-first for cell-factory carotenoid production — and rebranded in March 2026 from 恩和生物 (Enhe Bio) to 恩和科技 (Enhe Technology) to reflect its AI-driven positioning. Disclosed revenue was approximately 100 million RMB by December 2023 (up from >10 million RMB in May 2022); cumulative disclosed funding exceeds US$100M+ across Series A (May 2020), Series B (July 2021) and Series B+ (June 2024), with investors including BASF Venture Capital, Sherpa Healthcare Partners, Matrix Partners China, Baidu Ventures, HSG, 5Y Capital, and Source Code Capital.
Bota Biosciences firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Bota Biosciences
- Legal name
- Bota Biosciences
- Website
- https://bota.bio
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 101–250 employees
- Short description
- Bota Biosciences (恩和科技) is a Hangzhou-based synthetic biology and Physical AI company that builds the SAION AI platform and Bota Biofoundry to design, engineer, and industrially produce precision-fermented bio-based ingredients for food, nutrition, personal care, and fine chemicals customers including BASF, Syensqo, NHU, Proya, and Puratos.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Bota Biosciences industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Industrial Synthetic Biology / Bio-manufacturing
- NAICS
- Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714)
- SIC
- Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Synthetic Biology & Genetic Circuit Design Platforms (pathway engineering, chassis development) (HLAAAIAD)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Bioprocess Development & Scale-Up/Scale-Down Platforms (DoE, high-throughput, modeling) (HLAAAJAF), Automation, Controls & Manufacturing Execution for Bioprocessing (SCADA/DCS/PLC/MES) (HLAAAJAE), Enzymes & Industrial Biotechnology Inputs (Enzymes, Microbial Strains, Fermentation Aids) (EUAAAIAL), Biological Formulation, Fermentation & Scale-Up Manufacturing (AFABAEAM)
Keywords
Where Bota Biosciences is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Hangzhou
- HQ country
- China
- HQ region
- Asia
Offices5 records
Markets served
Bota Biosciences business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Hardware or Manufacturing
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Precision fermentation services & joint development: B2B service offering full-stack precision fermentation capabilities — partners bring market insight and target molecules; Bota delivers strain engineering, process development, scale-up, and industrialization. Land-and-expand model with multi-year strategic alliances (e.g., 5-year Syensqo partnership).
- Branded bio-based product sales (Yucca Elements / HeliaGenesis): Self-developed and mass-produced high-value bio-based ingredients for personal care (Yucca Elements: Prorylia FN, Re2 Coffea Arabica Peptide, ZeaVida precision-fermented zeaxanthin) and food/nutrition (HeliaGenesis: Purtect Nisin/Natamycin/ε-Poly-Lysine/Lysozyme). Distributed via own e-commerce storefronts and partner commercial networks.
- Technology transfer, licensing and commercialization royalties: Out-licensing of proprietary strains, processes and platforms to industrial partners (e.g., NHU strain commercialization delivering multi-million RMB economic value; Puratos enzyme co-development). Includes long-tail royalty potential on commercialized outputs.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels6 records
Bota Biosciences product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Bota Biosciences operates an AI-driven industrial synthetic biotechnology platform that programs biological systems for precision fermentation and clean bio-manufacturing. Its core commercial offerings are B2B precision-fermentation services (strain engineering, process development, scale-up, industrialization) delivered to Fortune 500 customers, branded bio-based ingredients (bio-preservatives under HeliaGenesis, personal care proteins under Yucca Elements), and technology/strain licensing to industrial partners. The proprietary SAION AI Physical AI Platform and Bota Biofoundry (Cell2Cloud) compress the Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle and link in-silico design directly to industrial-scale fermentation production.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Yucca Elements (青然新护): Wholly-owned personal care and beauty synthetic biology ingredients sub-brand specializing in pure, natural, high-efficiency bio-based raw materials such as Prorylia® FN Fibronectin and Re² Coffea Arabica peptides.
- HeliaGenesis (新日元生)
Products and services
- SAION AI Physical AI Platform End-to-end Physical AI platform that autonomously drives biological design from in-silico cognition through multi-agent orchestration to closed-loop wet-lab execution; offered to biomanufacturing enterprises and used internally to compress R&D-to-industrialization cycles from 3-5 years to as short as 6 months.
- Bota Biofoundry (Cell2Cloud Biofoundry) In-house full-stack biofoundry platform combining software algorithms, high-throughput data, deep learning, and biotechnology to accelerate Design-Build-Test-Learn cycles for industrial strain engineering, enzyme engineering, and protein discovery; offered to enterprise biomanufacturing customers.
- Bota Camino
Quantifiable outcome
- R&D-to-industrialization cycle compressed from 3-5 years to as short as 6 months via SAION AI
- +6 more outcomes
Companies that use Bota Biosciences
Customer profileSegments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Bota Biosciences technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability13 records
Feature6 records
Bota Biosciences partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.
- BASF, Pechoin (百雀羚), Yili (伊利) and other Fortune 500 / industry leaderscoreDisclosed in the Forbes China AI Tech Top 50 announcement as world-500/industry-leading deep partnerships spanning food, nutrition and personal care (also referenced across multiple press releases and on the company's "Proud Partnership with Industry Leaders" homepage section).
- Proya Co., Ltd. (珀莱雅)coreStrategic-level cooperation signing at Proya's Longwu R&D Center in Hangzhou — Proya's first strategic collaboration with a synthetic biology company. Focused on integrated application of synthetic biology and AI in cosmetics and biomedical aesthetics; co-developing AI-designed customized bioactive ingredients.
- SyensqoflagshipFive-year strategic partnership combining Bota's Performance Protein Platform with Syensqo's 40+ years of hair/scalp care expertise, supported by Syensqo's Renewable Materials and Biotechnology Platform and Syensqo Ventures. Expanded in March 2026 to globally distribute Re2 Coffea Arabica Peptide via Syensqo's commercial network.
- PuratoscoreJoint collaboration to expand Puratos' natural enzyme portfolio for bakery, patisserie and chocolate using Bota's extensive enzyme sequence/structure database and Biofoundry platform. Bota identifies and engineers the natural enzymes; Puratos develops and applies them at commercial scale.
- Zhejiang NHU Co., Ltd. (新和成)coreStrategic partnership leveraging NHU's specialty chemical production experience with Bota's full-stack strain development platform. First co-developed project successfully commercialized, generating tens of millions RMB in economic benefits with projected several hundred million RMB in total product value.
- World Economic Forum (WEF) — Unicorn community membershipflagshipSelected to the WEF Unicorns list (alongside OpenAI, Pivot Bio, Asimov) and invited to speak on the 'Bio-based Path to Net Zero' panel at Davos 2024 — a non-commercial recognition of Bota's leadership, impact, and innovation in industrial biotechnology.
- Agilent TechnologiescoreDeepened strategic cooperation building on a relationship since 2019. Bota's analytical platform is equipped with Agilent UHPLC, GC, LC-MS/MS, GC-MS and RapidFire high-throughput LC-MS systems; both parties will share technology and industrial resources to optimize metabolic flow analysis, protein quantification, and fermentation online detection for synthetic biology applications.
- GalacticminorListed as a proud industry-leader partner on Bota's homepage (Galactic is a lactic acid / natural preservatives specialist), suggesting a supply, development or distribution relationship in the bio-preservative value chain.
- Siveele (力诚)minorListed as a proud industry-leader partner on Bota's homepage — partnership in the personal care / consumer products value chain.
- Wahaha (娃哈哈), Yurun (雨润), Jinluo (金锣), Beter and other Chinese food brandsminorDisclosed on Bota's Chinese homepage as partner customers for food/nutrition ingredients (bio-preservatives and functional ingredients). Customer-type relationships rather than equity alliances.
Scale indicators13 records
Recent moves9 records
Expansion highlights8 records
Bota Biosciences competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Conagen: Conagen is a precision fermentation company developing bio-based ingredients for food, flavor, fragrance, and personal care — a direct competitor to Bota in fermentation-based bio-preservatives and performance proteins for personal care.
- Amyris: Amyris operated precision fermentation to produce bio-based ingredients for personal care, flavors and fragrances — a comparable business model to Bota's branded Yucca Elements and HeliaGenesis ingredient businesses (though Amyris's restructuring illustrates execution risk).
- Codexis: Codexis is a leading enzyme engineering company using directed evolution and computational protein design to develop industrial biocatalysts — directly comparable to Bota's Rapid Iterative Enzyme Engineering offering and its Puratos/BASF enzyme partnerships.
- Ginkgo Bioworks: Ginkgo Bioworks operates the largest commercial biofoundry (Foundry) and provides cell programming and strain engineering services across food, agriculture, and industrial biotech — directly comparable to Bota's Bota Biofoundry platform and SynBio services model.
Broad incumbents
- Corbion: Corbion is a global leader in lactic acid, bio-preservatives (similar to Bota's Nisin/Natamycin/ε-Poly-Lysine portfolio), and natural food ingredients — a directly overlapping product portfolio in bio-preservation.
- Novonesis (Novozymes): Novonesis (the merged Novozymes-Christian Hansen) is the world's largest industrial enzyme and microbial platform company — a broad incumbent in the same industrial biotech / precision fermentation space Bota addresses via its enzyme engineering offering.
- dsm-firmenich: dsm-firmenich is a global ingredients giant spanning food, nutrition, personal care and flavors — overlapping with Bota's Yucca Elements (personal care) and HeliaGenesis (food nutrition) branded ingredient offerings through comparable B2B distribution.
- IFF (International Flavors & Fragrances): IFF is a major global ingredients and biosciences company with significant fermentation and enzyme capabilities (Health & Biosciences division) — a broad incumbent comparable to Bota across flavors, food enzymes, and personal care ingredients.
Emerging players
- Culture Biosciences: Culture Biosciences operates a cloud-enabled bioreactor fermentation platform serving synthetic biology companies — comparable to Bota's biofoundry-as-a-service offering and overlapping customer base in strain engineering.
- Pivot Bio: Pivot Bio uses synthetic biology to engineer microbial nitrogen-fixation for agriculture — fellow WEF Technology Pioneer Unicorn alongside Bota, demonstrating the comparable synthetic-biology-platform-meets-industrial-application archetype.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat7 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Bota Biosciences social profiles
Digital presenceBota Biosciences compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
Bota Biosciences financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Bota Biosciences leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles9 records
Bota Biosciences subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries2 records
Bota Biosciences funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds5 records
Investors10 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Bota Biosciences M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Bota Biosciences
What does Bota Biosciences do?
Bota Biosciences operates an AI-driven industrial synthetic biotechnology platform that programs biological systems for precision fermentation and clean bio-manufacturing. Its core commercial offerings are B2B precision-fermentation services (strain engineering, process development, scale-up, industrialization) delivered to Fortune 500 customers, branded bio-based ingredients (bio-preservatives under HeliaGenesis, personal care proteins under Yucca Elements), and technology/strain licensing to industrial partners. The proprietary SAION AI Physical AI Platform and Bota Biofoundry (Cell2Cloud) compress the Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle and link in-silico design directly to industrial-scale fermentation production.
Is Bota Biosciences a public or private company?
Bota Biosciences is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Bota Biosciences founded?
Bota Biosciences was founded in 2019. It employs 101 to 250 people.
Where is Bota Biosciences based?
Bota Biosciences is headquartered in Hangzhou, China, in the Asia region.
How does Bota Biosciences make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Precision fermentation services & joint development is the primary driver. The others are branded bio-based product sales (Yucca Elements / HeliaGenesis) and technology transfer, licensing and commercialization royalties.
Who are Bota Biosciences's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Conagen, Amyris, Codexis and Ginkgo Bioworks. Broad incumbents are Corbion, Novonesis (Novozymes), dsm-firmenich and IFF (International Flavors & Fragrances). Emerging players are Culture Biosciences and Pivot Bio.
Does Bota Biosciences have an API?
No public API is recorded for Bota Biosciences.
What industry is Bota Biosciences in?
Bota Biosciences's product category is Industrial Synthetic Biology / Bio-manufacturing. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLAAAIAD, Synthetic Biology & Genetic Circuit Design Platforms (pathway engineering, chassis development), with a secondary code of HLAAAJAF, Bioprocess Development & Scale-Up/Scale-Down Platforms (DoE, high-throughput, modeling). Its NAICS code is 541714 and its SIC code is 8731.