Investment opportunity · New Zealand biotech
WheyTech Bionics NZ is developing natural sweeteners from whey and whey permeate, with the potential to support better sugar choices and create value from an underused dairy by-product.
The opportunity
WheyTech's proposition connects the global need to reduce sugar intake with a New Zealand dairy by-product that can be costly and environmentally contentious to dispose of.
[1] diabetesatlas.org [2] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov [3] bpac.org.nz [4] actiononsugar.org
Our solution
WheyTech is a New Zealand-based biotech start-up developing natural sweeteners from whey and whey permeate, with lab trials completed for pre-production.
Market opportunity
Technology & product development
Collected from local dairy manufacturers.
Multi-step filtration removes lactose and unwanted elements while retaining the target whey stream.
Lactose is broken down to create a natural, lactose-free sweetener.
Liquid concentrate can be converted into a versatile powder.
A closer look at sugar manufacturing, with interviews from the people behind the work.
Industry feedback
Fox Peak Dairy are the manufacturers of WheyTech products, working with us to turn New Zealand whey into a natural sweetener at commercial scale. Their specialist dairy facilities sit close to the whey stream and give us a trusted production partner as we move from trial batches toward larger manufacturing volumes.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand has approved our whey-based sweetener as a novel food in Australia and New Zealand. That regulatory recognition is a critical step for bringing a new food ingredient to market, giving manufacturers and investors confidence that the product can be sold across both countries.
The New Zealand Food Innovation Network is our main research partner and an internationally recognised institute supporting food companies from idea through to scale-up. Their network of specialist facilities has helped us develop, test and refine the whey permeate sweetener process alongside scientists and food technologists.
Through our Lead Scientist Dr Boland, we acquired the excellent services of Massey University Plant & Food that have given us excellent results in trials that are now a blueprint of technology producing the Whey Permeate Liquid Sweetener. By having two of New Zealand’s foremost scientists in Agriculture and Food Research in Dr Michael Boland and Professor Richard Archer you can be assured our products being first class.
The scientists and management at Food South continue to help us by inventing up-scale production for our liquid sweetener into granulated sugars. A difficult process but has shown to be achievable. In particular Alex Nicolle has been very pro-active and proven to be tenacious in finding out resulting in several batches of excellent natural sugars made from Whey Permeate.
In a first foray for funding we had a very ‘good ear’ with the SFF personnel who are excited by the prospect we will be using huge amounts of the Raw Whey By-Product otherwise discarded on land and used as pig feed. We have been successful in obtaining funding through their programme resulting in Massey producing great results.
We are grateful for their professional guidance and funding programme supporting us in the early stages of research and finding our ways in the labyrinth of government funding rounds. We continue to work with their excellent staff that have now morphed into MBIE.
Strategic roadmap
The next phase centres on trials and validation, followed by commercial launch, channel partnerships, international expansion and further R&D.
Validate the proposed anti-diabetic properties of the whey-based sweetener.
Launch into food, pharmaceutical and health supplement markets following trials.
Build manufacturing, marketing and distribution partnerships.
Scale internationally after a successful New Zealand launch.
Develop new IP from additional milk sources including sheep, goat and camel.
Capital raise
The raise is intended to fund product development and trials, manufacturing scale-up, market development, future research and operational costs.
Team
Founder / Director
40+ years' experience importing and exporting products for the food industry.
Lead Scientist
50+ years in agricultural and food biochemistry, with extensive research and dairy-sector experience.
Food Technologist
Food science and refrigeration technology specialist with research and advisory experience.
Marketing and IT
20+ years' experience in IT and marketing.
Join us
WheyTech is seeking forward-thinking investors and partners to support validation, scale-up and commercialisation.