What's in a name? Numerous biotech companies make the ol' switcheroo

May 2, 2011 |

You may have noticed that a number of biotechnology companies in the biofuels arena have been changing their names in recent years? Here’s the list:

Cobalt Biofuels to Cobalt Technologies (2010) – the full story.
Bluefire Ethanol to Bluefire Renewables (2010) – the full story.
Blue Marble Algae to Blue Marble Biomaterials (201) – the full story.
Sun Ethanol to Qteros (2008) – the full story.
Aurora Biofuels to Aurora Algae (2010) – the full story.
Solix to Solix Biosystems (2011) – the full story.
Mission Biofuels to Mission NewEnergy (2009) – the full story.
Joule Biotechnologies to Joule Unlimited (2010) – the full story.
Amyris Biotechnologies to Amyris (2010) – the full story.

What are the trends? Well, for sure no one is adding “ethanol” to their name, and two have abandoned it. “Accuracy” is one reason, stigma is a real one too. “Biofuels” has been abandoned by three – mostly, in that case, to represent a broader palette of products in which biofuels are a part, and perhaps a small part.

“Biotechnologies” was abandoned by both Joule and Amyris, presumably to reposition them as a seller of finished products rather than systems or technology, while Solix repositioned in the opposite direction to identify itself as a seller of systems. In the case of Aurora, there’s a move towards algae, while Blue Marble has moved away from that platform.

Bottom line: Redefinition, for sure, is a key gain for some of these players, but stigma is certainly a catalyst. Repositioning tends to synchronize with capital raising (one cycle in biotech where image counts); consequently, look for more swing-away from biofuels to “biotechnologies” and “bioproducts”, or simply dropping the bio reference completely.

Category: Fuels

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