BANGKOK/TOKYO — A Japanese startup that has developed a strong, lightweight and biodegradable material inspired by spider silk is set to begin full-fledged production in Thailand, a major milestone for a product 14 years in the making.
The Yamagata Prefecture-based Spiber, a 2007 offshoot from Japan’s Keio University, is one of Japan’s few unicorns.
Its signature product, Brewed Protein, is made by feeding such plant-derived sugars as glucose to microbes. The fermentation process converts biomass into proteins that can be processed into a wide variety of forms for applications ranging from apparel to auto parts.
“We want proteins to contribute to social development as a new core industry following ceramics, steel and plastics,” Keisuke Morita, head of Spiber’s Thai unit, said Monday while taking questions from the press at an inauguration ceremony for the company’s first mass…
