In this presentation, Andrew Lee, CEO of Lightgrow (LyteGro), outlines a business built around converting 30 million tonnes of annual banana waste into a patented microbial growth enhancer called BACLYTE. He quantifies the environmental problem (400 million tonnes CO₂ from rot) and the economic upside (a tonne of waste yields $40,000 of product). Lee describes BACLYTE as a “steroid for microbes,” enabling faster, higher‑yield fermentations without additional capital expenditure. He targets four initial sectors—R&D/diagnostics, brewing & distilling, enzyme & vaccine production, and yeast manufacturing—citing performance claims such as up to 140 % increased distillery output, halved fermentation time, 10‑20 % more alcohol, and one‑sixth reductions in feedstock and water use. A 10 % market capture across these sectors translates to a $250 million annual revenue opportunity. The go‑to‑market plan involves licensing (first sales via Merck), partnerships with major yeast producers, a Singapore subsidiary for APAC, and global production alliances in banana‑growing regions. Lee highlights the broader impact: diverting tens of thousands of tonnes of waste, cutting emissions, paying farmers, and creating jobs. The team consists of experienced startup founders and a new US head of operations, Rachel. Lightgrow is raising a £1.5 million seed round and seeking APAC partners.
Chapters
Hello folks, hi. My name's Andrew Lee, I'm CEO of Lightgrow, and we're turning waste bananas into liquid gold. So, oh, hang on. So everyone loves bananas. There's 120 million tonnes of bananas grown globally each year. Problem is 30 million tonnes end up in landfill. Now this rots to produce around 400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, and there's a social problem as well because farmers aren't paid for their waste. So what we do is we take this waste and we turn it into microbial growth enhancers. This is very profitable. We can take a tonne of banana waste and produce $40,000 worth of of product. The activity's only in bananas, and what's good for us is we've got granted patents, and there's no other comparable technology in the marketplace. So our product, BACLYTE, acts like steroids for microbes. So it essentially allows you to grow more microbes quicker, and if you can have more microbes, you increase productivity, And this increases yield and reduces process times. So huge industries rely on microbes, and we can supercharge them. So we can enable users to essentially get more out of the same resource. So this increases both profitability and sustainability. And what this can do for industry is essentially increase the output of a production plant without CapEx. Now this takes time and lots of money to expand fermentation plants. You can do it instantly just by using our product. So this is an immediate solution to the global shortfall in fermentation capacity. We're targeting 4 industries to start with: R&D and diagnostics. We've made first sales through our licensee Merck. And then we're targeting brewing and distilling, enzyme and vaccine production, where we've got customers waiting, and yeast production, where we're actually talking to 3 of the world's largest yeast producers. So for distilling, we can increase the distiller's output by up to 140%. We do this by essentially halving the fermentation time, but also increasing the output of alcohol in that half time by 10 to 20%. And this has sustainability benefits as well because the increased efficiency can save a 6th of feedstock use and a 6th of water use. So the market for our products is huge. So if we just hit 10% of the market across those 4 target industries, well then we're looking at a figure of $250 million a year. So we plan to expand rapidly and globally, and the way that we're going to do this is to form subsidiaries and production partnerships. Singapore's a very important place for us, so we want to form a subsidiary here to concentrate on the market across APAC. So we're also looking at production partnerships in pretty much every area of the world that's growing bananas. So if we achieve our goals, we have huge impact. So we'll be generating hundreds of millions of dollars each year in revenues. We'll be essentially diverting tens of thousands of tons of banana waste from landfill. This will reduce emissions not only directly, but our users' efficiency increases reduces carbon emissions as well. We're going to pay farmers for their waste because it's so profitable. Why not share the love? Excuse me. And we'll be creating jobs in the banana-growing communities that host our plants. So team, our team at the moment all share the same hairstyle. We're obviously a bit middle-aged, but we have experience as a result of that. And we were all experienced in essentially growing startups and going through funding rounds to exit. So we're taking on, for diversity and adding to the hair count of our company, we're taking on a US head of operations, Rachel, who's a very experienced biotech entrepreneur. So we're looking for investment at the moment. We're doing a seed round of £1.5 million, but we're not just here for that as well. We want to find potential partners who can help us expand into the APAC region. So please connect with me and help us turn waste bananas into liquid gold. Thank you. Thank you.
