Evolva and Abunda widen collaboration

Evolva Holding SA (SIX: EVE) announced today that it has signed an agreement with San Francisco, California-based Abunda Nutrition, Inc. to extend and expand their research collaboration. In this collaboration Evolva's technology platform is applied to create new and optimised production methods for certain high-value food ingredients.

The research will run for a minimum of two years and primarily be located at Evolva's Denmark and India sites. Around ten scientists from Evolva will be engaged on the program. Abunda will provide the majority of the funding and Evolva will be entitled to a double-digit share of the total commercial returns from the project. Further details regarding the agreement remain undisclosed. The new agreement does not change Evolva's revenue forecast for 2010.

"We are very pleased that Abunda has decided to extend and expand our existing relationship, said Evolva CEO and Managing Director Neil Goldsmith. "In addition to the vanillin collaboration that we recently announced, this deal demonstrates the versatility of our synthetic biology platform and we are excited by the commercial potential of the products within the collaboration. We are delivering on our promise to increase our partnership portfolio in 2010."

"We are proud to be working with Evolva and are delighted to expand our discovery and development collaboration with Evolva - ahead of schedule," said Abunda President and CEO Simon Waddington. "We believe this collaboration speaks volumes about the quality of our science and technology, the value proposition of our next-generation nutritional ingredients and production methods, and the role that we are playing in this field to bring innovative new products to the market to improve health and wellness."

About Abunda

Abunda Nutrition, Inc. is a San Francisco, California-based venture capital-backed company whose founders and directors (G. Steven Burrill, Ganesh Kishore, Rashidan Shah Abdul Rahim, Stuart Strathdee, Simon Waddington, and Norhalim Yunus) are pioneers in the fields of health, wellness, nutrition and biotechnology. Abunda focuses on the discovery, development and commercialisation of next-generation food ingredients and product solutions, which leverage advanced food and nutrition science and validated clinical data to address global unmet needs in dietary management of health and wellness. Abunda was founded in 2008 and incubated by the San Francisco-based venture capital firm Burrill & Company with initial financing provided by the Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund. Additional investors include the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation.