Terra Oleo, a Singapore-based biotechnology company, announced Thursday its emergence from stealth with $3.1 million in funding from a group of investors, and support from Breakthrough Energy’s prestigious Fellows Program.
As part of this highly selective global initiative, Terra Oleo is advancing microbial technology to create sustainable alternatives to palm oil derivatives and cocoa butter for use in personal care, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and food, the firm said in a statement.
It is noted that Palm oil and cocoa supply chains are under strain from climate instability, regulatory pressures, and limited land.
In 2024, cocoa’s end-of-season stocks fell 26 percent and futures prices reached record highs, while global palm oil exports dropped 5.83 percent year-over-year amid rising demand and production constraints.
These pressures are driving up costs and supply volatility, leaving producers and consumer goods companies in urgent need of alternatives.
Terra Oleo’s technology meets this need by reinventing how lipid ingredients are produced.
Terra Oleo’s tunable platform harnesses precision fermentation to transform agro-industrial waste into sustainable palm oil ingredients and cocoa butter alternatives.
Backed by deep synthetic biology and microbial engineering expertise, the platform delivers tailored lipid profiles for high-value palm and cocoa applications, while eliminating energy-intensive refining steps and toxic byproducts of conventional processes.
This approach overcomes the limits of natural microbes, delivering superior unit economics and faster market adoption than other solutions.
With strong process economics and deep market networks built alongside the conventional palm industry, Terra Oleo said the firm is uniquely positioned to deliver scalable, high-performance alternatives.
At full scale, its technology could eliminate up to 900 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) annually from palm oil and cocoa supply chains, accelerating decarbonization across personal care, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and food.
The company has already signed product testing agreements with several global and regional leaders in oleochemicals, food, personal care, and cosmetics.
With validation underway and demand accelerating, Terra Oleo said it is preparing to scale from lab to market with products designed to match or surpass conventional performance.
To date, Terra Oleo has raised $3.1 million from ADB Ventures, The Radical Fund, Elev8.vc, Better Bite Ventures, a strategic corporate investor from the palm oil industry, and other investors.
Terra Oleo was co-founded by Shen Ming Lee, Boon Uranukul, PhD, and Min Hao Wong, PhD, who together bring complementary strengths in science, industry, and strategy to advance the company’s mission to decarbonize palm oil and cocoa.
“We founded Terra Oleo to reinvent how we produce the fats and oils that power our everyday lives,
“With support from the Breakthrough Energy Fellows program and our incredible investors, we are deeply honored and excited to bring sustainable, scalable alternatives to market and collaborate with partners to decarbonize palm oil and cocoa,” said Shen Ming Lee, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Terra Oleo.
Terra Oleo was selected to join Breakthrough Energy’s 2025 Fellows Program, which supports early-stage innovators developing technologies with the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at gigaton scale.
With this support, Terra Oleo will scale from lab to pilot while advancing customer formulation testing and validation.
“We’re honored to have the opportunity to work with talented founders who are tackling the most difficult climate and energy challenges around the world,” said Ashley Gross, vice president of Breakthrough Energy.
As Terra Oleo enters its next phase, the company welcomes engagement with potential partners in the oleochemicals and specialty fats sector to sample its ingredients or co-develop customized lipids that are sustainable without compromising performance.
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