Solazyme, Roquette Join in Microalgae Ingredient Venture

SAN FRANCISCOSolazyme, Inc. and Roquette Frères signed a joint venture agreement for the production, commercialization and market development of microalgae-derived food ingredients. The joint venture will be 50% owned by each parent company and will be called Solazyme-Roquette Nutritionals. It will be operational by the beginning of 2011.

The joint venture is being formed to launch a new category of natural, healthy and functional ingredients based on microalgae that provide nutritional properties along with appealing taste and texture. Solazyme-Roquette Nutritionals plans to launch a variety of oil, protein and fiber based products aimed at delivering improved performance with an improved health profile compared to ingredients in the market today.

The merger of Roquettes global nutritional sales force with Solazymes microalgae-derived food ingredient technology, which includes heart-healthy algal flours and oils, will provide solutions that improve both product functionality and nutritional profile in large market food ingredient applications.

The joint ventures management team and board of directors will be drawn from both parent companies with Solazymes CEO, Jonathan Wolfson serving as the initial CEO of the joint venture. Roquette will fund and build a joint venture-owned, commercial-scale manufacturing plant with capacity in the tens of thousands of tons of annual production, sited at a Roquette corn wet mill. In addition, Roquette will provide upfront licensing payments to Solazyme and working capital to fund the joint venture until reaching profitability.

 Roquette is a family-owned company with outstanding values which create the basis for a long-term relationship with Solazyme. Beyond that, Roquette provides a total package including feedstock, manufacturing and applications expertise, and robust sales, marketing and customer relationships," says Jonathan Wolfson, CEO and co-founder of Solazyme. Combined with Solazymes technology, the joint venture is extremely well-equipped to commercialize revolutionary natural products into the food industry that provide all of the performance benefits consumers have come to expect, while providing the improved nutritional profiles they deserve."

Solazyme and Roquette share a very clearly-defined vision that microalgae will provide a major new class of food ingredients and we enter this JV very enthusiastic about the future" says Guy Talbourdet, CEO of Roquette. Marc Roquette, Chairman of Roquette continued, We believe that along with Roquette, Solazyme possesses the most innovative microalgal food ingredient technology in the world, and we look forward to using our extensive skills and assets to help bring this technology to market."