Comet Bio has been selected by Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, to join its 100+ Accelerator program in order to pilot technology aimed at upcycling brewer’s grain. The 100+ Accelerator is a partnership program AB InBev established to create breakthrough advances in sustainability, building off of AB InBev’s 2025 sustainability goals. The company lists six challenges around smart agriculture, water stewardship, circular economy, and climate action. The 100+ Accelerator provides funding from ZX Ventures, AB InBev’s incubator.
 
“AB InBev is a leader in finding solutions to climate change and the 100+ Accelerator is just one example of that,” CometBio said. “Optimizing the utilization of barley from the brewing process presents a very large opportunity for technologies like ours to upcycle the materials into high value, nutritious ingredients. We are very excited that we were selected.”
 
The six challenges for the Accelerator’s first cohort were Climate Action (centered around energy solutions), Circular Packaging (increasing recycled packaging content as close to circular as possible), Every Single Drop (improving impacts on water quality and efficiency), Farm X (advancing sustainable agriculture science around the globe), Smart Drinking (strengthening the prevention of harmful alcohol use), and Waste to Wellbeing (finding a second life to the company’s co-products).
 
“We received over 1200 submissions from around the globe across all six challenges. After a rigorous review, 17 start-ups have been selected to join the second 100+ Accelerator cohort,” Maisie Devine, global director, Sustainability Investments & Accelerator, said. “The future starts today by collaborating with visionary companies like Comet Bio.”
 
Comet Bio is no newcomer to the contemporary movement to make use of food waste, which experts estimate takes up about 30-40% of the U.S. food supply and has an untapped worth of over $100 billion.
 
The company, which was selected for its novel process to extract nutrients from food waste, has developed an ingredient called arabinoxylan, marketed under the brand Arrabina, a prebiotic fiber ingredient sourced from crop leftovers, Sweeterra 63DE, an upcycled non-GMO sweetener, two upcycled ingredients used to supplement animal feed, 95DE, a dextrose that can be fermented into renewable plastic, and Lignin, which can be used for industrial binding and briquetting applications. Motivated by environmental issues, its founder, Andrew Richard, has a long history of developing circular solutions from staple ingredients.
 
It believes that the consistency of its products will remain the same in this pilot study, as well as in larger-scale products. The company has completed similar projects to the pilot on many other feedstocks. It will begin in smaller grain quantities with a pilot study before it is expected to grow and be adopted by AB InBev, one of the largest buyers of barley ingredients in the world, as consumers continue to increase focus on plant-based products to improve their nutrition, the company sees the opportunity to see the pilot through to its fullest potential.
 
“We are excited to partner with AB InBev to pilot their saved grains in our process. AB InBev’s Waste to Wellbeing Challenge aligns perfectly with Comet’s core capability of extracting nutrition from food system waste,” Richard Troyer, CEO of Comet Bio, said.
 
AB InBev’s 17 selected applicants will be provided with support, mentors, and funds so the company can incubate, experiment, and amplify their solutions at scale.