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ABout Us

OUR VISION

The vast majority (90%) of Americans are falling short of their dietary fiber needs despite growing awareness of its many health benefits. Food manufacturers have yet to find the perfect fiber ingredient – one that is natural, functional, and versatile – to fill the 2-million-ton annual fiber gap in the US alone. 

Meanwhile, nature’s best dietary fiber, arabinoxylan, has laid dormant in plant materials left behind and processed out of our modern food system. Arabinoxylan is an exceptional soluble dietary fiber with clinically proven health benefits and superior tolerance in the gut. 

Only COMET has the patented upcycling technology needed to unlock arabinoxylan’s full potential and make it available in our proprietary line of ARRABINA dietary fibers. ARRABINA’s versatility makes it easy to add the clinically proven benefits of arabinoxylan to ANY food/beverage/supplement application and help close the fiber gap.

In the united states alone...

  • About 300 million consumers are falling short of their dietary fiber needs
  • About 2 million tons per year dietary fiber gap

Only comet can meet this opportunity:

  • No new acres and low environmental impact
  • No taste, color, cost or performance trade offs
  • No fear of GI distress

See How

Compares to Other Prebiotic Fibers

Our facilities

Comet Bio corporate Headquarters

Corporate Headquarters

London, Ontario

COMET’s Corporate Headquarters is located in London, Ontario and houses the company’s technology center, including a product laboratory. COMET’s technology center ensures high quality standards for ingredients and innovates to extend products’ functional benefits.
Comet Bio US Headquarters

U.S. Headquarters

Schaumburg, IL

COMET’s U.S. Headquarters is strategically located in the epicenter of US food and beverage production in the Chicago suburbs. COMET’s facility includes an application lab to test new product opportunities. The Schaumburg office is responsible for COMET’s commercial, marketing and administrative business functions.

Meliora Bio

kalundborg, denmark

Meliora Bio has a modern state of the art biorefinery upcycling straw for bioethanol, prebiotics, and lignin. The refinery was built by Ørsted in 2009, and since 2020 it has been a part of Karsten Ree Holding. The plant is part of a sustainable industrial park and utilizes biomass based steam, wind energy, and other green technology.

In 2021, COMET partnered with Meliora Bio to build out and expand the existing plant using our patented upcycling techonology. The dedicated manufacturing facility supplies over 4 million kilograms of ARRABINA annually.

Our Team

The COMET management team brings a wide range of cross-disciplinary experience. The team is aligned around the challenge of developing large scale food technologies to cost-effectively deliver sustainable, healthy and innovative products. With over a century of experience in clean technology development, finance and associated product and market development, the leadership team is ready to usher in the future of dietary fiber.

Andrew Richard

Founder and Chief Technology Officer

Loula Merkel

Chief Business Officer

Doug Gray

Vice President, Engineering

Dennis D'Agostino

Vice President, Operations

Our Board of Directors

Bruce Jamerson

Chairman

Josko Bobanovic

Partner, Sofinnova Partners

Marco Brunazzo

Investment Manager, PM Equity Partner

Jim schultz

Partner, Open Prairie

inder mathur

Retired President & CEO, Western Sugar Cooperative

Andrew Richard

Founder and Chief Technology Officer

matt stanley

Partner, BDC Capital

Our investors

ORGANIZATIONS

AWARDS

PROUD MEMBER OF:

CONTACT US

Corporate Headquarters

700 Collip Circle, Suite 209 London, ON N6G 4X8

U.S. Headquarters

1051 Perimeter Drive, Suite 1150 Schaumburg, IL 60173

Andrew Richard

As COMET’s founder Andrew brings expertise in process development and commercialization of new technologies. He is a recognized expert in the field of biomass conversion, pre-treatment, biorefining and biomass based fuels and chemicals, including cellulosic sugars. Andrew has a successful track record of developing and scaling biomass conversion processes and the production of linerboard pulp from ryegrass straw, including converting cellulose derivatives, ethanol and butanol, into transportation fuels.

Loula Merkel

Loula has over 15 years of experience in agribusiness and energy industries. Previously the Director of Project Development at Coskata, she was responsible for the development and financing of commercial projects. She also spent 8 years at McKinsey & Company, serving clients at the intersection of chemicals and agribusiness industries, including multinational fertilizer, agrochemical and food companies.

Doug Gray

Doug has a strong background in leading the design, construction and operations of new technologies within the alternative chemical processing field. Doug is a registered Professional Engineer (P.Eng) and a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). He has extensive experience in designing and implementing biomass conversion processes and facilities with overall project and budgetary responsibility. Doug has worked on a range of biomass feedstocks including wheat straw, corn stover, grasses, and woodchips for the production of cellulosic ethanol, and bio-based chemicals.

Dennis D’Agostino

Dennis has 25 years of experience in project management, project engineering, process development, equipment design and plant operations in the field of biomass conversion, pre-treatment, biomass based fuels and environmental technology industries. Dennis has proven ability to organize, manage and implement technical projects from inception to commissioning and is an expert in conducting technical evaluations, design layouts and improving production capacity and quality in biomass programs.

BRUCE JAMERSON

Bruce brings a wealth of experience to COMET. As President of Conifer Investments, LLC, a strategic advisory firm, he has experience in finance, bio-products, agriculture and energy. Bruce’s previous advisory assignments include Intrexon Energy Partners (energy biotech), Prairie Aquatech (animal nutrition), Novita Nutrition (animal nutrition, former Board member), Benson Hill Biosystems (agricultural biotech, former Board member), Proviera Biotech (probiotics), Benefuel Inc. (biodiesel, former Board member), Ensyn Corporation (biofuels, former Board member), GTUIT LLC (natural gas processing), and Osage BioEnergy (biofuels, former Board member).Bruce served as Board Chairman and CEO of Mascoma Corporation (industrial biotech) acquired by Lallemand Inc. He served as President, CFO and Board member of VeraSun Energy (biofuels) acquired by Valero Energy. Bruce founded Conifer Investments, previously a boutique investment banking firm. He served as Vice President of U.S. Natural Resources, Inc., an affiliate of Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Company. He also worked at The First Boston Corporation (acquired by Credit Suisse) and Citibank. Mr. Jamerson earned a M.S. degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a B.G.S from the University of Michigan.

Joško Bobanovic

Joško Bobanovic joined Sofinnova in 2010 as Partner of the Sofinnova Green Seed Fund dedicated to seed activities in renewable chemistry and bio-energy. Prior to joining Sofinnova he spent eight years in venture capital with iNovia Capital and its fund MSBi Capital in Montreal, Canada. Joško was responsible for cleantech investments at the fund, and focused on seed and early stage investments in cleantech and information technology. Prior to his venture capital career he created an internet startup and a software company. After completing his PhD studies Joško developed real-time ocean forecasting systems still used at Environment Canada for coastal ocean management. Joško holds a BSc. in physics from University of Zagreb, a PhD. in physical oceanography from Dalhousie University and an M.B.A. in finance and marketing from McGill University.

MARCO BRUNAZZO

Marco has been Investment Manager of PM Equity Partner since 2015. He was a key Member of the PMI M&A and Corporate Planning Team since 2012 until 2015. He is an Engineer versed in classical languages and combines deep financial and business planning expertise with solid technical understanding. Early in his career, he moved to the UK to join a high-tech start-up before he joined PMI in 2006. He held several positions in financial management and business planning. Mr. Brunazzo serves as a Member of Advisory Board at TreaTech Sàrl.

jim schultz

Jim Schultz founded Open Prairie as a private capital management company in 1999.  He has led and overseen the management of four private equity funds with investments in innovative technologies spanning agriculture, medical devices, and information systems. His current fund strategy is focused on agri-business investments in rural America under a USDA licensed rural business investment program (RBIP).

Jim is a fifth-generation Illinoisan, agribusiness entrepreneur, and private equity executive.  Like his ancestors, Jim has continued his family legacy in agribusiness throughout the America’s with investments in ag-tech companies, ag-input companies, rural businesses and farmland.  

He gained extensive leadership experience with growth-stage capital expansion over the years by investing in rural America.  Jim has served as the financial expert on mergers and acquisitions for clients in rural America in software development, banking, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and entertainment.

INDER MATHUR

Inder brings over 30 years of experience to the Comet Bio team in ingredient manufacturing, agribusiness, and the food and beverage industry. He most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of the Denver-based Western Sugar Cooperative, a $500 million sugar beet refining and marketing company. Before joining Western Sugar Cooperative, Inder served as CFO of Tate & Lyle North America where he developed a deep understanding of commodity markets. Specifically, Inder led the Finance function and served as a member of the Senior Executive team of the $3.5 billion Tate & Lyle North America Group comprising of sugar cane, sugar beet, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, and farm feed subsidiaries across North America.

ANDREW RICHARD

As COMET’s founder Andrew brings expertise in process development and commercialization of new technologies. He is a recognized expert in the field of biomass conversion, pre-treatment, biorefining and biomass based fuels and chemicals, including cellulosic sugars. Andrew has a successful track record of developing and scaling biomass conversion processes and the production of linerboard pulp from ryegrass straw, including converting cellulose derivatives, ethanol and butanol, into transportation fuels.

MATT STANLEY

Matt joined BDC in 2020 as a Director, Cleantech Practice. He draws on his extensive experience in corporate sustainability, innovation, strategy and venture capital to help climate-positive technology companies, entrepreneurs and investors accelerate the transition to a sustainable, climate-resilient future.

Before coming to BDC, Matt helped build IKEA’s corporate venture investment platform in the Netherlands, supporting thesis development, deal origination, execution and management of venture and growth equity investments into sustainable companies around the world. He also helped build-up IKEA’s Sustainability Innovation team, where he led explorations into the future of home energy, zero-emissions transport, urban farming, bio-based materials and circular business models. Prior to IKEA, Matt worked with EY’s Sustainability Advisory practice in the UK and with Deloitte’s Strategy practice in Toronto and Ottawa, and is the founder of SOMEWORKS, a boutique sustainability advisory firm.

Matt holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Mount Allison University and a Master of Sustainability Leadership from the University of Cambridge.