The once high-flying algae-based materials firm TerraVia has declared bankruptcy and plans to auction itself off. The only bidder to come forward so far is the Dutch food ingredients maker Corbion, which has made an offer of $20 million for the company.
TerraVia began life in 2003 as Solazyme, aiming to commercialize biofuels made from algae grown in huge fermentation vessels.
Solazyme went public in 2011 at $18 per share and soon hit $27 per share. But high production costs meant the technology could not compete with petroleum. So, like many of its biobased fuel rivals, Solazyme shifted to higher-value products such as industrial lubricants and biobased chemicals. It even launched its own skincare line, called Algenist.
In the spring…
Read the full article at: http://cen.acs.org/articles/95/web/2017/08/Algae-products-specialist-TerraVia-goes-bankrupt.html