Meet Biosimo
ETH Zurich spin-off. Founded in 2022. Zurich and Houston. Built with customers from day one. Hundred customer engagements. 5 purchase orders delivered, paid samples shipped, and qualified from two of the top three acetyls producers globally. $1.4M raised, ~$1M in grants. Pilot to kiloton expected in 2027.
Our Mission
Build uncompromised biochemicals that make fossil carbon obsolete in industrial manufacturing — delivering performance, scale, and price competitiveness.
Our Vision
A world built on abundant renewable materials without fossil dependency.
Meet the team
Out team members
Sotiria
Mostrou, D.Sc.
Chemical engineer, PhD from ETH Zurich. Principal inventor of Biosimo's catalyst and process. Previously led batch-to-continuous production transitions at Janssen/J&J. Started in entrepreneurship, moved into catalysis, then operations — and came back to build Biosimo.
Maximilian
Moser, D.Sc.
Doctor of Science from ETH Zurich. Part of a catalytic process that reached commercialization. Moved to BCG doing operations and lean manufacturing consulting, then came back to catalysis to co-found Biosimo.
Mike
Cohen
20+ years across commercialization, strategy, licensing, funding and business development. Director at Centennial Associates, advising startups and Fortune 500 companies on GTM strategy, offtake agreements, JVs, licensing and commercialization across chemicals, pharma and data science.
Aniruddhan
Balakrishnan
Drives strategy execution and operational alignment across Biosimo's commercial and technical workstreams.
Anil
Sethi
Serial entrepreneur, author, and ETH Zürich lecturer with multiple successful exits and over CHF 80M raised. Advises startups and corporates on scaling deep-tech innovations and translating science into commercial impact.
Torsten
Wintergerste, D.Sc.
Former President of Sulzer Chemtech. Deep expertise in chemical process technology and industrial scale-up. Pressure-tests Biosimo's engineering and commercial path.
Marco
Ziegler, PhD
Senior Partner at McKinsey. Led the Operations Practice across EEMA with deep focus on the chemicals sector. Opens doors across the global chemical industry.
Matthias
Halusa, PhD
30+ years leading chemical and life science businesses across global markets, including CEO and business unit roles, with deep expertise in strategy, portfolio management and stakeholder engagement.
Delia
Delia is our Chief Happiness Officer, keeping up motivation, inspiration and happiness to ensure maximum productivity!
Our Story: Timeline
Dr. Sotiria Mostrou developed the process for continuous large-scale production of acetic acid from bioethanol during her doctoral research at ETH Zurich.
Dr. Mostrou, with the scientific support of Dr. Maximilian Moser, invented an innovative catalyst, contributing significantly to the foundational technology of Biosimo.
The technology's stability and scalability were demonstrated during the Bridge PoC (Innosuisse and SNF fund).
The business case for Biosimo was developed by Dr. Mostrou and Moser, with support from Anil Sethi and the Venture Kick accelerator.
Biosimo AG was officially incorporated, with Dr. Mostrou and Dr. Moser as shareholders.
Biosimo achieved proof of concept and created an MVP for acetic acid.
The company closed a pre-seed funding round, securing about CHF 1 million in various forms of funding.
Biosimo commenced its first sales and initiated discussions for pilot projects with customers.
The mini-pilot plant was built and commissioned.
Biosimo began to focus on specialized acetic acid-based products and secured LOIs for significant quantities of standard specification acetic acid.
2024
First kilograms produced in spec.
Mini-pilot plant operational with 8,000+ hours stable catalyst performance.
First paid customer samples shipped. Product validated by two of the top three global acetyls producers.
2025
Selected for Activate Fellowship (Houston, 2-year program).
Joined Greentown Labs. Expanded operations to Houston.
2026
Customer funded bio-VAM pilot planned for Q2.
Seed fundraise to be launched in 2026.