Microsoft billionaire and climate change activist Bill Gates has invested in Australian start-up Rumin8, which has developed technology to cut methane emissions in the beef and dairy industries. Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) has backed the Perth-based firm’s “pharmaceutical” production of a methane-busting feed additive, which it says can be produced at scale at low cost. Rumin8 has completed a second phase of funding, raising $12m, and plans to build a pilot manufacturing plant in the US, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand to conduct commercial trials. The company has already secured field trials in New Zealand and Brazil.
BEV’s backing of Rumin8 marks the first investment in an Australian company by the fund, which is the world’s most high-profile climate change investment group. The Gates-led fund’s investment committee co-leader Carmichael Roberts said Rumin8’s “low cost, scalable toolbox” had already been proven effective in reducing emissions. He added that livestock remains “one of the cheapest protein sources globally, which means technologies that can reduce emissions from the existing cattle supply chain today and in the future are critical”. Gates has previously called for cuts in meat consumption, suggesting in 2021 that “all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef”. However, his climate fund acknowledges the need to reduce emissions from the livestock sector.
Rumin8’s technology replicates the bioactive in asparagopsis, seaweed found by the CSIRO to cancel out methane emissions from cattle through burps and farts. Dr Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s privately owned agri-business Harvest Road has also taken a stake in Rumin8. The latest funding round attracted bids of over $25m, despite Rumin8 seeking less than half that amount. The company has now raised around $25m. Rumin8’s patented technology stabilises and replicates nature’s anti-methanogenic compound so that it can be produced at scale and at relatively low cost. The company is backed by other firms such as Prelude Ventures and Australia-based Aware Super Sentient WA Growth Fund.
The Albanese government has committed to joining more than 100 other nations in US President Joe Biden’s global pledge to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030. The Australian government has faced criticism for failing to match the ambition of its climate change policies with concrete action, although the country has pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. FutureFeed, a firm backed by the CSIRO, Dr Forrest, Woolworths and GrainCorp, has launched a feed additive made from asparagopsis, which was previously touted as a solution to the problem. However, there are doubts over whether the seaweed can be farmed at large scale and whether it will be affordable for farmers.
Harvest Road CEO Paul Slaughter said Rumin8’s technology complemented the group’s other investments in cutting agriculture’s contribution to climate change. “Feed additives are an important pillar in our strategy to reduce our carbon footprint and support our ambition to help solve the global methane emissions challenge,” he added. Rumin8’s technology could be applied across the livestock sector and was “a promising solution for industry”, he said.
