Caliz.Bio

Caliz.Bio is an Argentine biotechnology company, co-founded in 2021 and based across Buenos Aires, Catamarca, and Santiago del Estero, that produces active ingredients derived from plants for the nutraceutical, cosmetic, and food industries. The company sells its ingredients business-to-business, developing products through multiple technological approaches: cellular agriculture, bacterial fermentation using pools of microorganisms including lactobacillus strains, and upcycling of discarded agricultural by-products such as olive pomace and pruning waste that would otherwise be burned as boiler fuel. The company currently has more than ten cell lines in cellular agriculture and four products in the fermented cosmetics category.

Caliz.Bio operates 350 planted hectares and has developed water-recovery infrastructure on its fields, including wells to recapture the approximately 250,000 litres of water consumed in operations. Its cellular agriculture methods use up to 90% less soil and water than conventional cultivation. A central part of its research agenda is the study and development of Argentina's native plant species, of which only around 3% of the estimated 10,000 species have been scientifically studied. The company works to extract antioxidants, polyphenols, probiotics, prebiotics, and phytochemical compounds from these plants through complex biotechnological processes, and it considers native plants to be more sustainable to cultivate than introduced species.

The company shares laboratory infrastructure with a caper-producing operation in Santiago del Estero, which provides certified research and development facilities. Caliz.Bio is part of a larger investor group that operates across Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico, covering different parts of the food and wellness production chain, and that actively supports the company's international commercial connections. The company also collaborates with the Universidad Nacional de San Martín on scientific development. Its first commercial sales of developed ingredients were made to a biotechnology company based in Boston, United States. The founding team combines field and agribusiness expertise with biotechnology knowledge, with one co-founder overseeing business development and the other managing laboratory operations. The company's medium-term goal is to bring four to five products to Latin American and global markets.