After James Levine stepped in last summer as CEO at Sapphire Energy, he told Xconomy he would be looking for ways to broaden and diversify Sapphire’s core expertise in algae-based biofuels by developing new businesses in related fields. Now that strategy is beginning to take form.
The San Diego company said Jim Astwood has joined Sapphire as a senior vice president of product management. As a food scientist and specialist in agricultural biotechnology, Astwood was previously at Hayward, CA-based Aurora Algae, where he was responsible for developing and marketing algae-based ingredients like omega-3 and omega-7 fatty acids, and protein for the dietary supplement, food and beverage, and pharmaceutical industries.
At Sapphire, Astwood will oversee the expansion of business development, focusing initially on applying the company’s algae biomass processing technology to develop new products in such markets as “nutraceuticals” (a food said to have health-giving additives and medicinal benefits), and animal and aquaculture feed.
Astwood’s arrival more or less coincides with the departure of Tim Zenk, who was Sapphire’s senior vice president of corporate development, and who had extensive experience in government and politics. Last month Zenk joined Algenol, an industrial biotech in Fort Myer, FL, that remains focused on producing ethanol, gasoline, jet fuel and diesel from algae.
Of course, producing “the world’s first renewable gasoline” was Sapphire’s primary focus in 2008 when the startup triggered a minor media frenzy by disclosing it had raised more than $100 million in a Series B funding round that included Arch Venture Partners, the Wellcome Trust, Venrock, and Cascade Investment, Bill Gates’ investment arm in Kirkland, WA.
A few months later, Continental Airlines made the first commercial test flight using algae-based jet fuel (produced by Sapphire and others). At a time when gasoline was over $4 a gallon at the fuel pump, Sapphire was a great green hope—the venture-backed icon of a promising foray in industrial biotechnology. Founding CEO Jason Pyle said the company’s mission was nothing less than changing the world by developing a renewable source of energy that would benefit the environment and hasten America’s energy independence.
But just a few months ago, Levine told Algae Industry magazine, “I think the world has changed since Jason’s days of running Sapphire. Part of the job of the management of a company is thinking about the current environment in which we operate and saying, “We have our set of tools. Are we putting them to the best use?”
Nor is Sapphire alone in its diversification strategy, as other biofuel companies like Solazyme, Heliae, and Cellana also have moved to
