Melazyme Secures $2 Million to Scale >99% Pure Melanin and Ultra‑Sweet Brazzein

Melazyme secured a $2 million seed round to scale precision‑fermented melanin and brazzein, targeting >99% pure pigment and a sweet protein up to 2,000× sweeter than sugar.

The funding, led by SeaX Ventures with Stellaris Venture Partners and Plug and Play Ventures, will support production scale‑up, partner collaborations, and early commercial deployments.

Founded in 2025 by former Perfect Day executives Perumal Gandhi (CEO) and Bonney Oommen, Melazyme builds on expertise in fermentation‑based food ingredients. The company engineers microbes to produce target molecules through precision fermentation, a method that inserts specific DNA into yeast or bacteria to direct metabolite synthesis.

This approach avoids the variability of natural extraction and the impurities of chemical synthesis, delivering a tunable platform. Melazyme’s initial focus is melanin for cosmetics and industrial uses, while simultaneously advancing brazzein, a heat‑stable sweet protein from the West African Oubli fruit.

Melazyme reports its fermentation‑derived melanin exceeds 99% purity, surpassing natural melanin (70‑80%) and chemically synthesized melanin (~75%). The high purity is achieved via a solvent‑free purification step that yields a powder dubbed Black Gold.

Brazzein, the sweet protein the startup is developing, registers 500 to 2,000 times the sweetness of sucrose. Its heat stability allows use in baked goods and beverages without loss of potency, and several US firms already have regulatory clearance to sell precision‑fermented brazzein.

With melanin at >99% purity, formulators can rely on consistent UV‑blocking performance in sunscreens and daily‑care cosmetics, reducing batch‑to‑batch variation. The pigment’s strong affinity for metal ions also enables applications in heavy‑metal sequestration and rare‑earth recovery, offering a bio‑based alternative to synthetic chelators.

Brazzein’s intense sweetness lets manufacturers cut sugar content by up to 99.9% while preserving taste, supporting low‑calorie and diabetic‑friendly product lines. Its stability under heat expands usability beyond beverages to confectionery and dairy applications.

Together, these outputs could lessen dependence on petrochemical pigments and high‑fructose sweeteners, aligning with sustainability targets across cosmetics, food, and environmental sectors. Early adopters may see cost advantages as production scales and purification remains solvent‑free.

Watch for Melazyme’s pilot‑scale runs later this year, the first commercial batches of Black Gold to cosmetic partners, and regulatory submissions for brazzein in the EU and Asia.