10 Years in Estonia: From Scientist to Founder

Message by Nemailla Bonturi, Co-founder and CEO of ÄIO.

Ten years ago, in October 2016, I packed my life in Brazil and moved to Estonia. I had just completed my PhD in Chemical Engineering at UNICAMP, where my work with oleaginous yeasts had started shaping the scientific foundations of what would, many years later, become ÄIO. I came to Estonia to continue my research at the University of Tartu and later to Tallinn University of Technology, TalTech, working with Professor Petri-Jaan Lahtvee.

I came here as a scientist.

I certainly did not arrive thinking that ten years later I would be the CEO of a biotech company, scaling that science into industrial production and taking products developed in Estonia to international markets. But that is what happened. Brazil gave me the scientific foundation, Estonia gave me the environment to build.

My journey with microbial oils actually started long before Estonia. I studied Biotechnology at UNESP and later completed my master’s and PhD in Chemical Engineering at UNICAMP. During my PhD, under Professor Everson Alves Miranda, I began developing the technology that would eventually become central to ÄIO. At that time, our initial focus was on oils for biofuel applications. When I moved to Estonia in 2016, the science continued to evolve. Working alongside Professor Petri-Jaan Lahtvee, we explored how the technology could move toward higher-value ingredients. Over time, the question shifted. It was no longer simply: Can we make microbial oils? It became: Can we build an entirely new way of producing the fats and oils that industries use every day? That question eventually became ÄIO.

Becoming a founder

In 2022, Petri and I founded ÄIO to take fermentation-derived fats and oils beyond research and toward industrial applications. For me, this represented a much bigger transition than simply creating a company. I had spent most of my professional life thinking like a scientist: questioning, experimenting, analysing results and trying again. Suddenly, I also had to learn to think like an entrepreneur. Science still had to work, of course. But now we also needed to build a team, raise capital, understand customers, develop products, create partnerships and figure out how to turn something that works in research into something that can work in industry. And perhaps that has been one of the most rewarding parts of these ten years. I did not stop being a scientist when I became a founder, I learned how to use that scientific mindset to build something much bigger.

From research to industry

Building ÄIO has taught me that developing a great technology is only the beginning. Taking biotechnology from the laboratory toward industrial production requires an entirely different level of persistence. We have had to learn, adapt and solve problems at every stage. Fermentation had to move beyond experiments, processes had to scale, ingredients had to become products, and those products had to deliver something meaningful for customers. At the same time, ÄIO itself needed to grow from a scientific project into a company capable of operating internationally.

Today, seeing our technology moving toward real industrial applications makes those years of work incredibly meaningful. We can finally see just how far this science could go and the journey is coming full circle. And there is something beautiful about that circle and there is one part of this ten-year milestone that feels particularly personal.

The scientific foundations began in Brazil, then I brought that knowledge with me when I moved to Estonia and here, together with extraordinary people, the science evolved into technology, and the technology became ÄIO. Now, ten years later, products developed from that journey are finding their way back to Brazil. ÄIO’s technology is making its way to Brazil as commercially available cosmetic ingredients.

Brazil remains an extremely important cosmetics market, with strong innovation capabilities and increasing attention to the origin, traceability and environmental impact of ingredients. Seeing an innovation shaped by my life in both countries connect Estonia and Brazil in this way is incredibly special.

What Estonia gave me

Looking back, moving to Estonia was one of the most consequential decisions of my life. This country gave me much more than a place to continue my research. It gave me the possibility to grow, to challenge myself, to move from scientist to entrepreneur, to meet people who believed that ambitious science developed in a small country could have global relevance and, to build ÄIO. Ten years ago, I arrived with my scientific experience and an idea that was still taking shape. Today, Estonia is home.

I am still a scientist, but I am also a founder and CEO, surrounded by a team turning years of research into products and bringing them closer to industries and people around the world.

From Brazil to Estonia. From scientist to founder. From research to industry. From Estonia to the world.
Thank you to everyone who has been part of these first ten years.

Aitäh, Eesti! ❤️
Nemailla Bonturi
Co-founder & CEO, ÄIO