This innovation eliminates the ethical and supply chain challenges of traditional salmon-derived PDRN

Umami Bioworks Unveils Animal-Free Marine Bioactives, Starting with PDRN

SINGAPORE
Thursday, August 14, 2025, 00:10 (GMT + 9)

The Singapore-based cellular agriculture firm expands its AI-powered platform to produce sustainable, animal-free ingredients for the personal care and nutraceutical industries.

SINGAPORE – Umami Bioworks, the Singapore-based cellular agriculture startup, has taken a bold step by expanding its AI-powered cell cultivation platform beyond cultivated seafood, launching a new line of sustainable marine bioactives for the personal care and nutraceutical industries. Under the brand "Marine Radiance," the company has introduced the line's first compound: an animal-free polydeoxyribonucleotide (PDRN), traditionally extracted from salmon sperm.

This diversification responds to the growing demand for high-performance marine ingredients while addressing critical supply chain issues. "We launched 'Marine Radiance' to address supply chain instability, ethical concerns, and quality variability that have long limited access to high-efficacy marine ingredients," explains Gayathri Mani, the company's product manager.

PDRN is a fast-growing ingredient, known for its properties in skincare, wound healing, and regenerative medicine. While it has become popular in the K-beauty space, its traditional production comes with a host of challenges, including supply inconsistency, biosecurity risks, and ethical concerns related to using animal by-products.

Umami Bioworks seeks to transform this market with an innovative solution. Its Alkemyst™ platform uses AI to cultivate marine cell lines under controlled conditions, precisely replicating the natural production of PDRN. "We are rethinking how bioactives like PDRN are made," Mani states. "Our platform provides a scalable, animal-free source of PDRN with optimized yields and the flexibility to meet growing global demand through localized production." The company asserts that its PDRN is bioidentical, with unmatched consistency and purity, and can compete in price with current alternatives.

A Booming Market and a Competitive Edge

The launch of Marine Radiance comes at a time of rapid growth for the PDRN market. Market analysts valued the global market at approximately $72 million in 2024 and forecast exponential growth, estimating it will surpass $855 million by 2031, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 43%. This growth is driven by interest in regenerative medicine and demand for ethically sourced and anti-aging solutions. South Korea stands out as a leader in R&D and commercial availability, accounting for over 50% of global production.

While other industry players, such as the Asian firm Avant, are also diversifying their portfolios with bioactives, Umami's focus on animal-free production with its AI platform sets its offering apart. The company is already in talks with leading personal care and regenerative medicine brands to co-create PDRN-based products, including anti-aging and skin repair formulations. The goal is to scale up production by the fourth quarter of this year to enable its partners to quickly bring new products to market.

Cultivated Seafood and Global Expansion Plans

The move into bioactives does not mean Umami Bioworks is abandoning its core goal of cultivated seafood. The company has made significant progress on this front, having submitted regulatory filings in major markets across North America, Europe, and Asia. It has established strategic partnerships in India and South Korea and is in active discussions with the UK's Food Standards Agency, a country where overfishing is a serious issue. Its most advanced development programs are focused on Japanese eel and bluefin tuna, with pilot production already underway for the former.

With an expanding portfolio and a clear roadmap, the company plans to open a new investment round in the coming months to fund the market launch of its first products and establish a first full-scale production facility for a major customer. This strategic expansion underscores Umami Bioworks' ambition to become a key player in the blue bioeconomy, offering sustainable solutions that range from food to high-tech ingredients.

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