How Twogee Biotech Started
Twogee launched in 2024 from Munich, Germany, founded by Frank Wallrapp (CEO) and Helge Jochens (CTO). The idea? Dead simple but massive: turn agricultural and industrial waste streams into valuable materials. Not rocket science, but nobody was actually doing it at scale.
Wallrapp and Jochens realized industries were literally throwing away billions of euros worth of biomass-wood chips, straw, food processing residues, brewery waste. All of it gets burned or dumped. But here’s the thing: those waste streams contain sugars and cellulose worth real money if you can unlock them.
They built a predictive enzyme development platform that designs custom enzymes and production strains specifically tailored to convert these waste streams into second-generation (2G) sugars-not food-based, completely sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels and food crops. By January 2026, they’d raised €2.16 million in seed funding from High-Tech Grunderfonds (HTGF) and Bayern Kapital. They’re already running paid pilot projects with industrial partners and have MVPs in the lab.
The company operates from Biotechnology Innovation and Start-up Center (IZB) in Martinsried, Germany, with their own labs and bioreactors. This isn’t some software startup. This is hard-tech biotech that requires serious infrastructure.
Competitive Advantage MOAT (Unique Strengths)-
• Predictive Platform Integration: Combines enzyme screening, strain engineering, and fermentation optimization in one integrated system. Competitors often do these separately. Twogee does it all together, compressing development timelines and reducing scale-up risk dramatically.
• Licensing Business Model: Instead of selling enzymes directly, Twogee licenses their technology so customers can produce enzymes locally. That reduces costs, cuts carbon footprint, and locks customers in long-term. Customers get decentralized production. Twogee gets recurring licensing revenue.
• Circular Economy Positioning: Every waste stream has different composition. Twogee’s customization capability is perfect for the “one-size-fits-none” reality of industrial waste. They solve a problem nobody else is tackling systematically.
• Early Market Traction: Already running paid pilot projects with industrial partners. First MVPs available. That’s massive for a company only months old. Most biotech startups have zero customers at this stage.
• Deep Tech with Real Economics: This isn’t bio-curiosity. The business case works RIGHT NOW. Replacing fossil fuels with 2G alternatives saves costs when sustainability and profit align. That’s the holy grail of green tech.
How Twogee Biotech Makes Money ?
Twogee operates a licensing and service revenue model:
Technology Licensing: Partners pay upfront and recurring fees to license Twogee’s custom enzymes and production strains. They manufacture locally. Twogee earns recurring revenue without manufacturing everything themselves.
Pilot Projects: Industrial companies pay Twogee to run techno-economic analyses and proof-of-concept pilots. Convert their specific waste stream. Prove the economics work. Get paid for the project. Then license the tech.
Enzyme Production Strains: Custom-engineered microorganisms that produce the enzymes. High-margin product with long customer relationships.
The unit economics are attractive: once you’ve developed a custom enzyme solution, replicating it costs almost nothing. Scale = profit explosion.
Market Share of Twogee Biotech-
Twogee is brand new (founded 2024, seed in January 2026), so traditional market share is minimal. But here’s why investors are betting on them:
• TAM is Absurdly Large: Industrial waste streams are measured in gigatons globally. Convert even 1% into valuable materials = hundreds of millions in addressable market.
• Competitors Are Fragmented: Evoralis, Breaking, Scindo-they exist but haven’t captured the market. Twogee enters with better tech and better timing.
• Perfect Moment for 2G Materials: EU regulations are tightening on fossil fuels. Chemical companies NEED sustainable feedstock alternatives. Governments are subsidizing circular economy companies. The wind is at their back.
• Paid Pilots = Real Validation: Having customers willing to pay before you’re even profitable is the holy grail. It means the problem is real and they’re solving it.
Twogee isn’t trying to disrupt anything. They’re just taking industrial waste that costs money to dispose of and turning it into profitable products. That math works. The market will follow.
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Hi Friends, This is Swapnil, I am a content writer at startupsunion.com
