Ayana Bio and Brevel Awarded $1.25M BIRD Foundation Funding to Scale Plant Cell Culture Bioactive Production via Illuminated Fermentation

Strategic U.S.-Israel partnership combines plant cell cultivation and illuminated fermentation to deliver consistent, sustainable, and high-potency ingredients for global food, nutrition and wellness applications.

BOSTON, MA and KIRYAT GAT, ISRAEL – June 4, 2026 – Ayana Bio, a U.S. leader in plant cell technology, and Brevel, an Israeli pioneer in commercial scale illuminated fermentation, today announced a strategic joint development partnership. The collaboration has been selected to receive a prestigious grant from the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation to advance and scale plant cell cultivation using illuminated fermentation technology for the commercial production of plant-based bioactive ingredients.

The partnership is part of a newly approved cohort of seven binational projects backed by a $7.5 million grant pool from the BIRD Foundation, which leverages private sector funding to drive a combined $20 million investment. The funding is designed to mitigate research and development risks and accelerate the commercialization of cross-border, high-impact innovations.

Through this collaboration, Ayana Bio and Brevel will combine their proprietary technological platforms to address one of the food and wellness industries’ most pressing challenges: the instability of traditional botanical supply chains. Climate change, shifting agricultural conditions and contamination risks frequently impact the quality and availability of plant-derived ingredients. By combining Ayana Bio’s advanced plant cell cultivation and synthetic biology platforms with Brevel’s unique, industrial-scale illuminated fermentation platform, the two companies will build a predictable, scalable and indoor manufacturing pipeline for high-value bioactives.

“Our mission at Ayana Bio is to democratize nature’s bioactives by decoupling ingredient production from traditional agricultural constraints,” said Frank Jaksch, CEO of Ayana Bio. “By integrating Brevel’s unique illuminated fermentation platform, we can further scale our plant cell lines in a controlled, highly efficient environment. This BIRD Foundation grant validates the power of our combined technologies to create standardized, contaminant-free plant ingredients that meet the surging global demand for clinical-grade nutrition and wellness.”

“We are excited to collaborate with Ayana Bio to expand the boundaries of what plant cell cultivation and bioactive ingredient production can achieve,” said Yonatan Golan, CEO and Co-Founder of Brevel. “Brevel’s illuminated fermentation infrastructure was built to unlock the full potential of photosynthetic organisms at a commercially viable scale. Applying this hardware and process engineering to plant cell cultivation allows us to accelerate the transition to a more resilient, sustainable food system. We thank the BIRD Foundation for recognizing the transformative potential of this binational cooperation.”

“This project exemplifies the type of innovation and collaboration that the BIRD Foundation was established to support,” said Jaron Lotan, Executive Director of the BIRD Foundation. “By combining Ayana Bio’s expertise in plant cell cultivation with Brevel’s breakthrough illuminated fermentation technology, the companies are addressing important global challenges in sustainable ingredient production. We are proud to support this U.S.-Israel collaboration through the BIRD program.”

For nearly five decades, the BIRD Foundation facilitates collaboration between American and Israeli companies to advance critical technologies. The joint venture between Boston-based Ayana Bio and Israel-based Brevel demonstrates the deep technological synergy between the two nations, providing a sustainable solution for global consumer packaged goods, dietary supplements and functional food sectors.

About Ayana Bio

Ayana Bio, Boston, MA, uses plant cell cultivation to grow plant materials without growing them in the ground. Ayana Bio focuses on creating ingredients that leverage plant bioactives for health and wellness products. Plant cell-derived ingredients solve many of the sustainability, purity, safety and ethical concerns in current botanical supply chains. Ayana Bio collaborates with global industry leaders in food, beverage, dietary supplement, sports nutrition, animal care and skin care to bring the power of plant bioactives to the mass market at scale.  Ayana Bio is backed by prestigious investors, Viking Global and Cascade, to democratize nature’s bioactives. For more information, visit www.ayanabio.com.

About Brevel

Brevel, a climate biotech company, was founded to address the expanding demand for sustainable, resilient, and affordable ingredients for the food, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical industries. Brevel is the first company to develop and scale illuminated fermentation from lab bench to 5,000L commercial volume. The company’s proprietary technology was first applied to microalgae, and successfully marketed to the nutraceutical industry. Brevel has secured USD30M in funding to expand into additional industries where its technology will bring high value. For more information, visit www.brevel.co.il.

About the BIRD Foundation

The BIRD (Binational Industrial Research and Development) Foundation encourages and facilitates cooperation between U.S. and Israeli companies across a wide range of technology sectors, offering funding to selected projects.

The Foundation supports projects without taking any equity or intellectual property rights from the participating companies or the projects themselves. BIRD funding is repaid through royalties from sales of commercialized products developed with BIRD support. The Foundation provides funding of up to 50% of a project’s budget, covering activities from R&D through the initial stages of sales and marketing. BIRD shares the development risk and does not require repayment if a project does not reach commercialization.

Through nearly five decades of activity, the BIRD Foundation has played a central role in advancing U.S.-Israel technological cooperation, accelerating innovation, strengthening cross-border partnerships, and helping companies transform breakthrough technologies into commercially successful global products.

For more information, visit www.birdf.com.

Media Contacts:

Ayana Bio:

Frank Jaksch
CEO
E-mail: office@brevel.co.il
Web: www.ayanabio.com

Yonatan Golan
Co-Founder & CEO
E-mail: office@brevel.co.il
Web: www.brevel.co.il