The Missing Middle

Capital stack & infrastructure risk in biomanufacturing

With biomanufacturing, Australia can unlock a trillion-dollar industry. The step to scale is how we make it real.

Science is hard. But once the science works, the harder challenge is the capital stack.

We need a viable capital stack that funds what traditional financiers won’t. Early-stage, high-impact infrastructure that lacks significant signed offtake today but has clear long-term demand.

Offtake takes time, especially in food, ag, and chemicals, where customers want to see scale first. That doesn’t mean there’s no market, it means the infrastructure has to come first.

Equity alone isn’t enough, these projects are too capital-intensive to be funded solely through venture dollars without unacceptable dilution.

We need blended capital solutions:

• Equity for early risk

• Debt from financiers willing to step in before offtake is secured

• Grants that are fast and flexible, because time is the enemy

We’ve built plants before, pharma-scale biomanufacturing is well established. This is no different in complexity, just in end use.

The first plant is always the hardest, but it unlocks everything: commercial precedent, learning curves, investor confidence, and customer trust.

The solution is collaboration across public and private capital, VCs, PE, and government.

• We need to share the risk.

• Be transparent about what it takes.

• And back the founders shaping Australia’s next industry and export story.