Amyris bets on biotech comeback after bankruptcy overhaul

Biomanufacturing company Amyris is attempting a major comeback after emerging from bankruptcy with a radically different business model focused on recurring revenue, operational discipline and biotechnology partnerships. CEO Kathy Fortmann said the company has sharply reduced its burn rate and repositioned itself as a leaner, privately held biotech firm centered on precision fermentation, according to AgFunderNews.

Two years after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Amyris is rebuilding around its original strength: engineering yeast and fermentation systems to produce specialty molecules for industries including beauty, agriculture, food, pharma and specialty chemicals.

Fortmann, who became CEO in May 2024 after leadership roles at companies including Cargill, DuPont and IFF, said the company’s previous strategy created major financial problems. According to AgFunderNews, Amyris struggled with an overleveraged balance sheet, unprofitable consumer brands and weak cash management before its restructuring.

“Brands require substantial A&P,” Fortmann explained, referring to advertising and promotion costs. “There was this movement into branded products versus sticking to the core and a lack of discipline around cash management.”

The company has now abandoned most of its consumer-facing businesses and returned to a pure B2B biotech model. Amyris sold off consumer brands such as Biossance and Pipette during the bankruptcy process and emerged in 2024 as a privately owned company backed by lender groups affiliated with Foris Ventures.

Fortmann said the operational shift has already produced dramatic financial changes. “Our burn rate in all of 2025 was what it was previously in a month,” she told AgFunderNews.

A major part of the new strategy involves prioritizing recurring revenue instead of one-time research contracts. Amyris is also changing how it approaches manufacturing partnerships.

Previously, the company aimed to produce nearly every molecule it developed using its own infrastructure. Fortmann said that model has changed. Amyris is now willing to license technologies or partner with external manufacturers when projects are not economically suited for its high-end fermentation assets.

The company’s flagship industrial facility in Barra Bonita, Brazil, remains central to its operations. Fortmann described it as a “world-class, highly flexible precision fermentation facility” focused on high-value specialty molecules instead of low-margin commodity products such as biofuels.

According to AgFunderNews, Amyris is also expanding into the fast-growing market for agricultural biologicals, where companies are increasingly searching for sustainable alternatives to traditional crop protection and agricultural inputs.

Fortmann said Amyris is actively approaching startups and major agricultural companies that need support with strain engineering, scale-up and fermentation manufacturing. “One of the things I think we were missing as a company was true business development,” she said.

The company believes broader industry trends are creating stronger demand for biomanufactured ingredients. Amyris argues that climate change, geopolitical instability and supply chain disruptions are pushing companies to seek more reliable and consistent sourcing alternatives.

Rather than simply replicating petrochemical or naturally sourced ingredients, Amyris is also focusing on designing entirely new molecules with enhanced functionality and performance.

“It’s not just trying to match what’s out there, but being able to tailor make what doesn’t necessarily exist today,” Fortmann said.

Artificial intelligence is becoming another strategic focus. Amyris believes its two decades of proprietary fermentation and bioprocess data could help accelerate research and development timelines through AI-driven optimization.

The company currently operates facilities in California, Brazil and North Carolina, handling everything from strain engineering and pilot fermentation to downstream processing and industrial-scale manufacturing.

Founded in 2003 from research conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, Amyris initially gained global recognition for producing an anti-malarial ingredient called artemisinin with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Over time, however, the company expanded aggressively into consumer brands and struggled to control costs. By 2023, Amyris had accumulated roughly $1.15 billion in debt before filing for bankruptcy protection.

Today, the company is positioning itself as “Amyris 2.0,” focused entirely on biotech partnerships, scalable fermentation technologies and long-term recurring revenue opportunities.