NSW startup Cauldron adds $13.25 million to its funding pot

New South Wales biomanufacturing startup Cauldron has secured $13.25 million in new funding in a Series A2 round led by leading deep tech venture firm Main Sequence Ventures.

Horizon Ventures, SOSV and NGS Super also backed the Orange-based startup, which has now raised a total of $26 million in funding to date.

At the same time, the company is continuing to receive international attention, having this week been named on Fast Company‘s latest list of the Most Innovative Companies in the Asia-Pacific.

Cauldron, which was founded in 2022 by CEO Michele Stansfield and CFO David Kestenbaum, develops advanced fermentation systems for the food and chemical manufacturing sectors.

The startup has developed a continuous “hyper-fermentation” platform, which is built on proprietary technology that builds bioprocessing more efficient on an industrial scale.

“For biomanufacturing to compete in industrial sectors, bioproducts have to deliver on costs, scale, and quality,” explained Stansfield in a statement this week.

“Bioprocess innovation is how we receive there”.

The latest funding and international recognition represent an important moment for Cauldron, added Stansfield.

“This milestone reflects the impact of our platform at a time when governments and corporations are urgently seeking competitive bio-based solutions to address supply chain pressure.”

Cauldron “at the forefront”

Cauldron’s continuous production model is designed to address such pressure and offer an alternative for how essential products are sourced and secured.

To date, the startup has worked with clients that are commercialising bio-based food ingredients, chemicals and nutraceuticals, and was the first to demonstrate industrial-scale continuous fermentation for synthetic biology strains at a 10,000-liter scale.

In mid-2025, Cauldron was recognised as a technology pioneer by the World Economic Forum, and in 2024, it secured $9.5 million in Series A funding, as well as $4.3 million in funding from the federal government’s Indusattempt Growth Program.

“Cauldron is proving that biology can run continuously, predictably, and at the volumes global supply chains demand,” stated Main Sequence Ventures partner Phil Morle.

“Hyper-fermentation closes the gap between breakthrough strains and reliable, cost-competitive production. As long-term deep tech investors – and Asia Pacific’s largest dedicated deep tech venture firm – we see this as a systemic industrial transformation,” he added.

“In a market distracted by AI hype cycles, we’re backing the hard, physical work of scaling biology. That’s what builds concludeuring companies, and it’s why we believe Cauldron is at the forefront of building bioindustrial manufacturing commercially inevitable.”

Cauldron states the new funding will support it meet growing demand from governments and businesses that are investing in biomanufacturing infrastructure.

The startup currently operates a 30,000-liter demonstration facility in Orange and is working with corporate partners to potentially retrofit other existing facilities to deploy its technology at partner sites.

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