About Us
Healthy and Sustainable Products From Upcycled Crop Leftovers
Healthy and Sustainable Products From Upcycled Crop Leftovers
Forty percent of the food produced around the globe currently goes to waste according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. At the same time, nutrition gaps and food insecurity continue to persist, even in the United States, where more than 30 percent of the population is considered undernourished while also either obese or overweight.
This paradox of our food system producing more waste than ever, yet still not providing adequate nutrition demonstrates the need for innovation. At Comet Bio, we are working to address both challenges by extracting nutrition from food system waste. Our proprietary upcycling technology produces novel ingredients with enormous nutritious potential while simultaneously addressing critical environmental challenges.
Delivering High Quality, Sustainable Ingredients
We are focused on delivering high quality, sustainable ingredients to a wide array of customers. Our technology has been proven in our Research & Development Center in London, Ontario as well as our ENEA demonstration facility in Italy.
London, Ontario CA
Comet Bio’s Corporate Headquarters is strategically located in London, Ontario housing the company’s product laboratory. The product laboratory team performs detailed analysis of the sustainable ingredients that are produced at the company’s European Supply Chain. Comet Bio analyzes their ingredients to ensure they are of the highest quality.
Schaumburg, IL
Comet Bio’s U.S. Headquarters is strategically located in Schaumburg, IL because of the significant number of food and nutrition companies located throughout the region. The Chicagoland office houses the company’s administrative and commercial functions.
Rotondella, Italy
Located at the ENEA Trisaia Research Center, Comet’s technology has been operating at a demonstration scale since 2012. The ENEA facility, owned by ENEA, processes up to 10 MT per day of biomass and has been used to demonstrate continuous operation on wood and agricultural leftovers of various kinds. Material from this plant is used for end-market sampling and user acceptance trials.
The Comet Bio 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. The Comet Bio team has over 100 years of experience in clean technology development, finance and associated product and market development.
Bruce Jamerson
Chairman
Bruce brings a wealth of experience to Comet Bio. As President of Conifer Investments, LLC, a strategic advisory firm, he has experience in finance, bio-products, agriculture and energy. Bruce currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Intrexon Energy Partners (energy biotech). Previous advisory assignments include 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
Partner, Sofinnova Partners
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
Investment Manager, PM Equity Partner
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.
Andrew Richard
Founder and Chief Technology Officer
As Comet Bio’s founder Andrew has deep 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 up biomass conversion processes and the production of linerboard pulp from ryegrass straw, including converting cellulose derivatives, ethanol and butanol, into transportation fuels. Andrew has worked on successful platform chemical projects converting both forestry and agricultural residues into chemicals and hemicellulose and lignin co-products. Andrew received his B.E.Sc. degree in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from The University of Western Ontario, an M.B.A. from the Richard Ivey School of Business, and completed his Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering at The University of Western Ontario.
Rich Troyer
Chief Executive Officer
Rich brings a unique combination of corporate development, operations and finance expertise in renewable chemicals and biofuels. Mr. Troyer was previously the Chief Business Officer at Coskata, a bio-chemicals company, where he oversaw business development, strategic planning, project development and external relations. Before joining Coskata, he was a Managing Director at The Blackstone Group, where he was responsible for investments in biofuels and bio-chemicals companies. Earlier in his career, he was an equity research analyst at AllianceBernstein, Credit Suisse First Boston, and Piper Jaffray, where he focused on the clean technology and biotechnology sectors. Rich received his M.B.A. in Finance and Marketing from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.B.A. degree in accounting from Baylor University.
Inder Mathur
Director
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.
YouTube
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Comet, 700 Collip Circle Suite 209, London, ON, N6G 4C4, CA. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact.