Japanese biotechnology company Spiber is opening the fermentation technology behind its Brewed Protein fibers to outside manufacturers, creating a new business around the infrastructure it developed to bring its alternative textile materials to commercial scale.

The company launched Spiber Biofoundry on Oct. 2, offering strain engineering, process development and contract manufacturing services to businesses developing proteins and other fermentation-derived products. The service draws on Spiber’s research facilities in Tsuruoka, Japan, and its commercial production plant in Rayong, Thailand.

Customers can use Spiber’s technology to improve microbial protein yields, develop manufacturing processes or produce materials at volumes ranging from laboratory batches to commercial fermentation runs.

Spiber developed these capabilities over nearly two decades while commercializing Brewed Protein , a family of structural proteins produced through microbial fermentation using plant-derived sugars.…