ÄIO > About us
Dare to dream
about a future
without a cost
ÄIO gets its name from a deity of dreams in Estonian folklore.
The name represents the boldness of ÄIO’s founders’ dream —
to replace unsustainably produced fats and oils with sustainably made ones.
By combining Nemailla and Petri’s expertise in bioengineering and
fermentation technology, industrial side-streams become something valuable, and the dream becomes reality.
How ÄIO became reality
2012
Petri-Jaan Lahtvee successfully defends his PhD on energy metabolism in yeast strains and begins his post-doctorate in Chalmers University of Technology.
2016
Nemailla Bonturi successfully defends her PhD on microbial oil production in Brazil and subsequently moves to Estonia to join Professor Petri-Jaan Lahtvee’s research group for the construction of microbial cell factories.
2016-2021
Bonturi and Lahtvee work together at the University of Tartu’s Faculty of Science and Technology as Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow in Synthetic Biology, respectively.
2021
The research group receives a grant from the Tallinn University of Technology.
2022
Approval for a spinoff is acquired from TalTech and a company by the name of ÄIO is officially established. Estonia was chosen as the location due to its supportive startup ecosystem and accelerator programs.
2023
Initial pitches begin and the first angel investment (1M) is acquired after ÄIO’s RedOil piques the interest of Nordic Foodtech VC investor Mika Kukkurainen.
2024
The seed (6.1M) investment round is a success. Investors include Voima Ventures, 2C Ventures, SmartCap, and Nordic Foodtech VC.
2026
The laboratory has been expanded into an industrial-level production facility, proving that it is possible to produce sustainable fats and oils at a viable scale.
Our dreamweavers
Nemailla Bonturi, PhD
Co-founder and CEO
Petri-Jaan Lahtvee, PhD
Co-founder and CTO
Mary-Liis Kütt, PhD
CIO
Martin Mets, BSc
CFO
Magdalena Koziol, PhD
Head of Cosmetics Development
Matthew Ottaway, PhD
Head of Sales
Luísa Czamanski Nora, PhD
Head of Strain Engineering
Mateus Ribeiro da Silva, MSc
Head of Pilot Plant
Hiroaki Takeda
Culinary Development Manager
Alo Jürgenstein, BSc
Operations Lead
Mariane Barrier, MSc
Head of Commercial
You
Help us make the dream happen
Our values
The conflict between industry and sustainability is at a tipping point.
ÄIO’s mission is to resolve this by developing sustainable alternatives to animal fats, palm, and coconut oil. By introducing environmentally friendly microbial lipid products to the market, we aim to evoke a turn of mind towards more responsible production and consumption. Our biotechnology solution utilizes proprietary yeast, which converts various side streams into value-added ingredients rich in lipids, proteins, antioxidants, and pigments, thereby balancing the scales.
Nemailla Bonturi,
PhD
Co-founder and CEO:
“Fermentation”
is not just
a buzzword. It is
a vital tool.”
ÄIO has a strong team of scientists and researchers with over 200 years of combined experience in biotech. 58% of the team hold Master’s degrees and 35% hold PhDs. More about ÄIO
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Please contact us via info@aio.bio!
Estonian Business and Innovation Agency supports äio tech OÜ with a grant of 1 226 407,25 euros.
The project RES.5.04.25-0837 “FERM-OIL: Sustainable Fermentation-Based Flavoured Fats development for Diverse Food Applications.”
The project aims to develop and validate fermentation-derived flavoured fats for food applications, including the optimization of production on local industrial side-streams, industrial scale-up of the process, safety and quality assessment, and application testing in different food products. The project also supports preparation for novel food approval and future market entry.
Project duration: 01.11.2025 – 31.10.2028
Estonian Business and Innovation Agency (former Enterprise Estonia, EAS) supports äio tech OÜ during Applied Research Programme with a grant of 1 065 304,65 euros.
The project RE.5.04.25- 0771 “„Research and development of microbial fermentation-derived lipids and their derivatives for use in cosmetic ingredients and platform chemicals.”
The project aims to develop and study microbial lipids and their derivatives for use as cosmetic ingredients, including the evaluation of various oil extraction methods (such as solvent extraction, supercritical CO₂, and enzymatic extraction), their fractionation and purification, and the development of a scalable production process.
Project duration: 30.06.2025 – 29.06.2028
Environmental Investment Centre supported äio tech OÜ through the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
The project “Biotechnological pilot production of specialty fats” aims to adapt the pilot-scale fat production platform created in the DigiFoundry project for the production of specialty fats, upgrading the technology from TRL4 to TRL6.
Project duration: 01.11.2024 – 01.02.2026
Estonian Business and Innovation Agency (former Enterprise Estonia, EAS) supported äio tech OÜ during Applied Research Programme with a grant of 150 000 euros.
The project RE.5.04.22-0124 “SmartFerm – sustainably produced healthy food” aim was to valorise local industrial side-streams into value added speciality lipids.
Project duration: 01.11.2022 – 31.10.2023
Estonian Business and Innovation Agency (former Enterprise Estonia, EAS) supports äio tech OÜ with a business development grant of 50 000 eur.
The project RE.5.04.23-0385 “Acquiring novel food permit in Singapore” is about mapping the landscape for submitting a novel food permit application in Singapore. „Projekti rahastatakse riigieelarvest teadus- ja arendustegevuse rahastamise vahenditest“;
Project duration: 8.11.23 – 7.11.24.
In collaboration with AS Center of Food and Fermentation Technologies (TFTAK), Estonian Business and Innovation Agency supports äio tech OÜ with a grant of 1 445 296,54 euros.
The project RE.5.04.23-0218 “DigiFoundry – an automated platform for the development of precision fermentation processes” aims to build a semi-automated platform for the design of novel microbes to up-cycle various local by-products into high-value food components.
Project duration: 01.05.2023 – 30.04.2026
ÄIO has worked together with Accelerate Estonia, Estonia’s national innovation lab, to accelerate novel food approval and turn Estonia into an innovation hub for the novel food sector.
ÄIO and Gelatex in partnership with Accelerate Estonia were working to enable our food systems to evolve, so that innovators across the world would have Estonia, renowned for its digital prowess, to help them with receiving the required novel food approvals in the EU.
ÄIO is proud to be one of the daughter companies originating from Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), one of Latin America’s leading engineering and science universities. The company’s foundations are rooted in academic research and technology development carried out within UNICAMP’s strong biotechnology and chemical engineering ecosystem. This scientific heritage continues to shape ÄIO’s approach to building scalable, sustainable solutions through fermentation-based innovation.
