Culture Fuels

Culture Fuels is revolutionizing the health foods, feed and fuel sectors by producing carbon-neutral algae that are cost competitive.

  • Stage Full Product Ready
  • Industry Industrial/Energy
  • Location New York City, NY, USA
  • Currency USD
  • Founded April 2010
  • Employees 4
  • Website culturefuels.com

Company Summary

Culture Fuels has developed the leading cultivation platform to grow carbon-neutral algae for conversion to nutraceuticals, feed (cattle and fish) and fuels. Due to its patented design, the platform can produce algae fuels at under $2.00/ gallon ($70 barrel). Company has a ready product which is operating at a demonstration facility in Florida. Culture Fuels has raised $700K in seed capital and is currently raising a $2.5M Series A.

Team

  • Lawrence Walmsley
    CEO and Co-Founder

    Core member of the renewable energy practice at McKinsey & Company where he focused on biofuels and biomass-to-energy. Before that, Mr. Walmsley was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Mr. Walmsley has an MBA from MIT, an MPA from Harvard and a BSE from Princeton.

  • Dr. Andreas Meiser
    CTO and Co-Founder

    Designed and operated an algae pilot plant at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology in Germany from 2002 to 2005. Dr. Meiser gained thorough business experiences in the biofuel and biotechnology industry in the years 1999-2002 and 2005-2008 at McKinsey & Company. Dr. Meiser has a PhD in Biology and Natural Sciences from the University of Hohenheim and a Masters in Biology from the University of Saarland, Germany.

  • Dr. George Philippidis
    Advisor

    Director of the Alternative Energy Research Center and Associate Professor of Biofuel Engineering at the Univeristy of South Florida Polytechnic. Dr. Philippidis has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.

    Dr. Philippidis’ advisory role is focused on the integrated system to grow and harvest algae.

  • Dr. Jonathan Trent
    Advisor

    Senior scientist at NASA Ames Research Center leading the development of the OMEGA project (Offshore Membrane Enclosure for Growing Algae). Dr. Trent has a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

    Dr. Trent’s advisory role is primarily focused on the floating technology and its feasibility. The OMEGA team has developed extensive expertise on using algae for wastewater treatment.

Advisors

  • David Gammell (Brown Rudnick)
    Lawyer
    Unconfirmed

Previous Investors

  • Friends and family (in 2010) - $100K
    Unconfirmed
    Angels (2011 and 2012) - $600K
    Unconfirmed
    State of Florida - $70K
    Unconfirmed

Starting a startup?

Join the world's largest startup network for guidance, tools, and fundraising opportunities.

Get Started for Free