Biotech Open Platform Inaugurates Its Biotechnology Platform, Opening a New Chapter for Industrial Innovation in Europe
- Two years after its creation by Danone, Michelin, DMC Biotechnologies, Crédit Agricole Centre France, Clermont Auvergne Innovation and Greentech, Biotech Open Platform inaugurates its industrial biotechnology platform and welcomes its first advanced fermentation projects.
- With more than €20 million invested in its first phase and fermentation capacities of up to 15 m³, the platform addresses a key biotechnology challenge: bridging the gap between laboratory development and industrial-scale production.
- Open to start-ups, industrial companies and R&D organizations, Biotech Open Platform supports the scale-up of biotechnology innovations and contributes to strengthening European industrial competitiveness.
A strategic bridge from the laboratory to industrial-scale production
Clermont-Ferrand, France — September 29, 2026 — Every year, numerous biotechnology innovations demonstrate promising results in the laboratory. Yet many of them never progress beyond that stage. Between proof of concept and industrial deployment lies a critical step: scale-up. Biotech Open Platform was created specifically to address this challenge.
Two years after its creation, Biotech Open Platform today inaugurates its biotechnology platform at the Sustainable Materials Center, located within Michelin’s Innovation Park – Cataroux in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Representing an investment of more than €20 million in its first phase, this infrastructure marks the transition from a project announced in 2024 to a fully operational industrial facility welcoming its first projects.
The platform supports start-ups, industrial companies and R&D organizations in developing, optimizing, scaling up and validating fermentation-based processes, from laboratory scale to conditions representative of industrial production.
To achieve this, the platform offers integrated fermentation, purification and bioprocess development capabilities, including a complete fermentation line with a capacity of up to 15 m³ and semi-industrial purification systems; facilities that remain rare in Europe. All of these capabilities meet the most stringent standards, particularly those applicable to food production.
Beyond technical process validation, the platform enables the production of sufficient volumes to conduct application testing and support the validation stages prior to commercial production.
A catalyst for the development of new industrial applications
As the availability and sustainability of certain fossil-based ingredients and resources come under increasing scrutiny, industrial biotechnology and advanced fermentation processes are opening up new opportunities to produce molecules, ingredients and materials from renewable resources.
Advanced fermentation, of which precision fermentation is one of the main technology approaches, uses microorganisms such as yeasts, bacteria, microalgae and fungi as true “micro factories” capable of producing molecules of interest to industry. These technologies can produce proteins, enzymes, food ingredients, cosmetic actives and bio-based materials for sectors as diverse as food and beverages, cosmetics, agriculture, chemicals and biomaterials.
Biotech Open Platform is designed to support a broad range of companies facing the same industrial scale-up challenges, well beyond its founding companies. This openness is one of the project’s founding principles.
A unique collaborative model supporting European industrial competitiveness
Biotech Open Platform is built on a strong conviction: major scientific, industrial and environmental challenges require new forms of collaboration.
Biotech Open Platform was born from a joint initiative by Danone, Michelin, DMC Biotechnologies, Crédit Agricole Centre France, Clermont Auvergne Innovation and Greentech to jointly create an open industrial platform. With its own dedicated teams and infrastructure, Biotech Open Platform ensures strict project confidentiality and the protection of intellectual property. The project has also benefited from the support of the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), managed by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, as well as from Clermont Auvergne Métropole.
Against a backdrop of growing international competition, the platform aims to strengthen the European industrial capabilities needed to foster the development of new value chains based on renewable resources and to turn scientific innovations into tangible industrial solutions.
Khadidja Romari, Chief Executive Officer of Biotech Open Platform
“Biotech Open Platform was created to address a very concrete challenge in biotechnology: how to move from a promising process at laboratory scale to a robust process that can work at industrial scale. The infrastructure is important, but equipment alone is not enough. Scale-up requires experience, technical know-how and the ability to solve the issues that appear as the process moves from one scale to another. Confidentiality and protection of intellectual property are also essential for the companies we work with. Our role is to help them move faster and more securely towards industrialization.”
Antoine de Saint-Affrique, Chief Executive Officer of Danone
“For more than a century, Danone has drawn on the science of fermentation to bring health through food to as many people as possible. With Biotech Open Platform, we are strengthening a critical link in Europe’s biotechnology ecosystem by accelerating the industrial scale-up of laboratory innovations. Biotech Open Platform demonstrates the value of shared infrastructure and long-term partnerships in enhancing European competitiveness.”
Florent Menegaux, Chairman of the Michelin Group
“With the inauguration of Biotech Open Platform, we are turning a strong conviction into an industrial reality: biotechnology will play a major role in the sustainable transformation of many sectors. By providing companies with an open infrastructure and leading expertise, we want to accelerate the transition from research to industry. For Michelin, this is an opportunity to explore new ways of replacing certain molecules currently derived from petrochemicals with more sustainable, bio-based alternatives. More broadly, this platform aims to become a catalyst for innovation in support of European competitiveness.”
Jim Flatt, Chief Executive Officer of DMC Biotechnologies
“One of the main barriers to the development of industrial biotechnology is access to capabilities that can demonstrate that an innovation can be produced reliably and competitively at greater scale. Biotech Open Platform provides a concrete response to this challenge by giving companies access to the infrastructure and expertise needed to accelerate the industrialization of biology-based innovations.”
Frédéric Baraut, Chief Executive Officer of Crédit Agricole Centre France
“Biotech Open Platform fully illustrates a region’s ability to bring together industrial companies, entrepreneurs, researchers and investors around a forward-looking project. By supporting this initiative from the outset, Crédit Agricole Centre France sought to contribute to the creation of a structuring asset for innovation, employment and the economic attractiveness of our region, while helping develop a strategic sector for Europe.”
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Biotech Open Platform – Key data
- Creation date: 2024
- Founding partners: Danone, Michelin, DMC Biotechnologies, Crédit Agricole Centre France, Clermont Auvergne Innovation, Greentech
- Initial investment: €20 million
- Surface area: 5,000 m²
- Industrial scale-up: from 10 grams to 1 tonne of ingredients
- Number of employees: 16 in 2026
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About Biotech Open Platform
Created in 2024 by Danone, Michelin, DMC Biotechnologies, Crédit Agricole Centre France, Clermont Auvergne Innovation and Greentech, Biotech Open Platform (BIOP) is an open industrial platform dedicated to accelerating biotechnology in Europe. Based in Clermont-Ferrand, it supports start-ups, industrial companies and research organisations in scaling up their innovations from the laboratory to industrial production. Through its cutting-edge infrastructure and expertise, BIOP enables bioprocesses to be developed, tested and validated, and the first volumes required for validation phases to be produced before large-scale industrial deployment. In doing so, it helps strengthen European industrial competitiveness and foster the emergence of new value chains based on biotechnology and renewable resources.
About Danone
Danone is a leading global food and beverage company operating in three health-focused, fast-growing and on-trend Categories: Essential Dairy & Plant-Based products, Waters and Specialized Nutrition. With a long-standing mission of bringing health through food to as many people as possible, Danone aims to inspire healthier and more sustainable eating and drinking practices while committing to achieve measurable nutritional, social, societal and environment impact. Danone has defined its Renew strategy to restore growth, competitiveness, and value creation for the long-term. With c.90,000 employees, and products sold in over 120 markets, Danone generated €27.3 billion in sales in 2025. Danone’s portfolio includes leading international brands (Actimel, Activia, Alpro, Aptamil, Danette, Danio, Danonino, evian, Nutricia, Nutrilon, Volvic, among others) as well as strong local and regional brands (including AQUA, Blédina, Bonafont, Cow & Gate, Mizone, Oikos and Silk). Listed on Euronext Paris and present on the OTCQX platform via an ADR (American Depositary Receipt) program, Danone is a component stock of leading sustainability indexes including the ones managed by Moody’s and Sustainalytics, as well as MSCI ESG Indexes, FTSE4Good Index Series, Bloomberg Gender Equality Index, and Access to Nutrition Index. Danone achieved B Corp™ certification at global level in 2025.
About Michelin
Michelin is building a world-leading manufacturer of life-changing composites and experiences. A pioneer in materials science for more than 130 years, Michelin draws on unique expertise to make a significant contribution to human progress and a more sustainable world. Through its unrivalled mastery of polymer composites, Michelin constantly innovates to manufacture high-quality tyres and critical components for demanding sectors including mobility, construction, aeronautics, low-carbon energies and healthcare. Its attention to product quality and deep understanding of uses enable Michelin to provide customers with exceptional experiences, from data- and artificial intelligence-based solutions for professional fleets to discovering outstanding restaurants and hotels recommended by the MICHELIN Guide. Headquartered in Clermont-Ferrand, France, Michelin operates in 175 countries and employs 129,800 people.
About DMC Biotechnologies
DMC Biotechnologies is a US industrial biotechnology company. It develops and deploys processes based on precision fermentation and synthetic biology to produce molecules of interest for the food, chemicals and materials sectors more sustainably. Its proprietary Dynamic Metabolic Control™ (DMC™) technology is designed to make fermentation processes more predictable, robust and efficient at industrial scale.
About Crédit Agricole Centre France
With 2,400 employees and 230 branches, Crédit Agricole Centre France is a responsible and useful bank serving 900,000 customers. Operating in Allier, Cantal, Corrèze, Creuse and Puy-de-Dôme, it works every day to support the development of its region, where it is the leading bank, and supports the creation and development of businesses as well as initiatives that help sustain local employment. Active in private equity for more than 20 years, Crédit Agricole Centre France currently supports more than 50 companies with development, succession and external growth projects. Strongly committed to innovation, it also supports innovative young companies through its accelerator, Le Village by CACF.
About Clermont Auvergne Innovation
Clermont Auvergne Innovation, the technology transfer subsidiary of Clermont Auvergne University and INRAE, connects the university’s research laboratories with the business community by simplifying and accelerating collaborations while maximising their added value. It provides businesses with flexible, streamlined access to the scientific community’s assets and expertise, identifies innovative solutions emerging from research, and supports their development through to the creation and acceleration of deep-tech start-ups.
About Greentech
Founded in 1992, Greentech Group is a French biotechnology pioneer. It develops innovative solutions derived from plant, microbial and marine biotechnology for health, cosmetics, nutrition, agroecology and the environment. Present in around 50 countries and generating 60% of its sales internationally, the group has strong innovation capabilities, with nearly 20% of its employees dedicated to research and development.
