Geltor

Geltor is a San Leandro, California-based biodesign company that produces animal-free, high-performance proteins such as collagen, elastin, and keratin using precision fermentation and synthetic biology. The company supplies these sustainable polypeptide ingredients to global consumer brands operating across the beauty, personal care, wellness, nutrition, and food and beverage sectors. Geltor has raised a total of $137 million in venture capital funding to scale its commercial manufacturing operations and proprietary Biodesigner AI platform. The enterprise recently reported a 75 percent surge in annual revenue as it expanded its ingestible collagen solutions into new international markets across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The firm's commercial growth has been supported by notable venture capital investors including Andras Forgacs, SOSV, Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, and CPT Capital. Geltor was founded in 2015 by Alex Lorestani and Nick Ouzounov.

High-Level Overview

Geltor is a biotechnology company specializing in biodesign, using precision fermentation and synthetic biology to produce animal-free, sustainable proteins like collagen and elastin for beauty, nutrition, food, and beverage industries.[1][2][3][7] It serves consumer packaged goods brands seeking ethically sourced, high-performance ingredients, solving the problem of animal-derived proteins (which dominate over 90% of the collagen market from slaughter byproducts) by offering scalable, GMO-free alternatives with superior biocompatibility, purity, and efficacy.[1][3][5] Geltor operates an "ingredients-as-a-service" platform, enabling tailored bioactive proteins, and has shown strong growth momentum: founded in 2015, it raised over $114 million across six rounds, including a $93.1 million Series B in 2024 led by CPT Capital, while scaling production 100x amid 25% global collagen demand growth.[2][7]

Origin Story

Geltor was founded in 2015 by Princeton graduates Alex Lorestani (CEO) and Nick Ouzounov (CTO), two friends driven by a passion to bridge biology, beauty, and design through sustainable protein innovation.[2][7] The idea emerged from recognizing the disconnect between consumer demand for ethical, effective ingredients and reliance on animal-sourced proteins like gelatin; they developed a recombinant platform for "real gelatin without the animal" using microbial fermentation.[1][6][7] Early traction came via collaboration with ABPDU (Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Development Unit), where as a Bay Area startup without its own lab, Geltor validated and scaled its animal-free collagen tech—testing bioreactors, improving oxygen transfer, and building a commercialization toolkit that set industry benchmarks.[4] Pivotal moments include launching HumaColl21® and Elastapure® (Elements of Skin™), gearing up for vegan collagen in 2021, and recent products like NuColl (2024) for hair and CAVIANCE™ (2023) for skin.[1][7]

Core Differentiators

Geltor's edge lies in its proprietary biodesign platform, which accelerates protein development from inspiration to market in months, not years, via a streamlined process:

• Biodesign & Computation: Draws from nature's protein databases to engineer optimized sequences for superior performance, novelty, and sustainability—100% animal- and GMO-free in final products despite genetic engineering in production.[1][3][5]
• Precision Fermentation at Scale: Microbes act as eco-friendly factories for commercial volumes; flexible infrastructure supports diverse proteins beyond collagen/elastin, with 100x scaling demonstrated.[2][3][4]
• High-Purity Purification & Formulation: Delivers formulation-ready ingredients with clinically proven efficacy, biocompatibility, and ease of integration into beauty/food products—outperforming traditional counterparts.[1][3]
• Ingredients-as-a-Service Model: Tailors bioactive proteins to customer needs at unprecedented speed, backed by $114M+ funding and partnerships like SOSV and IndieBio.[2][6]

This combination enables "designer proteins" for industries shifting from farm-to-lab.[1][5]

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Geltor rides the synthetic biology and precision fermentation wave, transforming biotech into a programmable tool for sustainable ingredients amid rising ethical consumer demands and climate pressures on animal agriculture.[1][2][3] Timing is ideal: global collagen demand surged 25% yearly, fueled by clean-label trends in beauty (e.g., vegan skincare) and nutrition (e.g., ingestible proteins), while startups disrupt the $50B+ gelatin market dominated by slaughter byproducts.[1][2] Market forces like regulatory pushes for sustainability and CPG brands' net-zero goals favor Geltor's scalable, low-impact model, which intersects computational biology, fermentation, and biodesign to enable lab-to-table innovations like faux meats or spider silk.[1][4] It influences the ecosystem by proving biotech's cross-industry potential—partnering with facilities like ABPDU, inspiring pilot plants, and accelerating peers via shared scale-up learnings.[4][7]

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Geltor is poised to dominate sustainable proteins, leveraging its platform for rapid expansion into food/beverage (e.g., NuColl scaling) and custom ingredients for brands, with funds fueling demand and a new pilot plant.[2][4][7] Trends like AI-driven biodesign, escalating ESG mandates, and precision fermentation cost drops will propel growth, potentially unlocking novel proteins for pharma or materials. Its influence may evolve from niche disruptor to supply-chain staple, redefining "conscious biodesign" as biotech's new standard—echoing its founding mission to make sustainable proteins ridiculously easy.[2][3]