NSW biotech Cauldron Ferm grew to become the primary startup to win two years in a row on the Startup Day by day Greatest in Tech Awards, after taking out Greatest Regional Startup in each 2024 and 2025.
The award, supported by Carta, recognises an excellent startup positioned exterior of the state capitals, which demonstrates sturdy progress, boldness in execution and expresses a transparent imaginative and prescient for the area they stay and work in.
Cauldron is pioneering the following frontier in biomanufacturing to remodel how every little thing from meals to fibres, animal feed, fuels, and extra are created utilizing precision fermentation.
Based in 2022 by Michele Stansfield and David Kestenbaum, the deep tech startup relies in Orange, three-and-a-half hours west of Sydney.
It’s been a busy 18 months for Cauldron, which raised a $9.5 million in Sequence A in April final yr, then introduced David Weiner as chief know-how officer.
On high of that, the startup scored $4.3 million from the federal authorities’s Trade Progress Program after which 12 months in the past, obtained Queensland authorities funding to construct a biomanufacturing facility within the tropical north, in addition to grant help from the US Division of Protection for a US-based facility.
The Cauldron Bio-fab in Mackay, the guts of Queensland’s sugar cane belt, could have the manufacturing capability to produce a spread of sectors. Sugar fuels the hyper-fermentation course of.
The plant’s annual manufacturing of greater than 1000 tonnes will produce key inputs for the meals, vitamin, supplies, magnificence, private care, chemical compounds and biofuels sectors.
As Stansfield explains, by co-locating with feedstock producers, Cauldron is creating new demand and value-add for regional provide chains, embedding itself into the financial material of the neighborhood and decreasing transport emissions and enter prices.
It additionally decentralises high-tech job creation, spreading financial alternative past capital cities. It additionally aligns with authorities and business efforts to rebuild sovereign functionality exterior metro hubs.
Cauldron’s hyper-fermentation know-how allows the creation of proteins, supplies, and specialty chemical compounds with dramatically decrease environmental impression—decreasing electrical energy utilization by 55%,and water by 20%.
The Orange plant is absolutely booked at demo scale, with six clients throughout meals, vitamin, magnificence, chemical compounds, and supplies sectors.
In the meantime, the crew has grown to 25.
Operations supervisor Jacqui Wilkinson accepted the Greatest Regional Startup 2025 award on behalf of the Cauldron crew.
“It means rather a lot to win.The exhausting work and energy, the quantity of hours that we pour into what we do – it simply makes it worthwhile,” she mentioned.
“Top-of-the-line issues that I discover is I actually like seeing when folks realise what we’re doing and the place we’re heading. You see it mild up of their eyes and it’s actually particular to me.”
“We wish to begin getting on the market and exhibiting what we are able to do extra. Our purpose is that we wish to assist produce extra assets for the world extra effectively and create a extra sustainable future.”
Cauldron reveals that regional deep tech isn’t a constraint—it’s a aggressive edge.
This text is dropped at you by Startup Day by day, with the help of Carta.
Thanks to our Startup Day by day Greatest in Tech Awards 2025 companions:
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