Slashing Oil Development from 2 Years to 30 Days to Accelerate Innovation and Cut Time-to-Market
French biotech company SMEY, which uses fermentation and artificial intelligence to create sustainable cultivated oils, announces the launch of NOY — the Neobank of Yeasts: the world’s first digital databank of yeast fatty acid profiles. Designed to accelerate the development of next-generation oils for consumer goods, NOY replaces years of genetic engineering with a precision-matching process: instead of modifying yeast to produce a specific oil, a process that can take up to 2 years, NOY searches its proprietary strain database to find yeast that already naturally produces the desired oil. This cuts R&D timelines to just 30 days, allowing manufacturers to rapidly develop high-performance, fully traceable ingredient alternatives tailored to their exact specifications.
NOY was developed after more than two years of focused R&D by a team of 30+ experts in microbial fermentation, lipid chemistry, bioinformatics, and computational biology — drawing on talent from leading institutions across Europe and the US. At its foundation is a curated physical library of over 1,000 yeast strains, seamlessly integrated with SMEY.AI, a proprietary system that maps genomic, metabolic, and fermentation data. This engine identifies the optimal strains for specific product attributes — such as melting point, texture, or oxidative stability — in just hours, accelerating processes that once took weeks.
“With NOY, we’re not trying to hack biology — we’re trying to understand it. This project is our way of engaging in a dialogue with nature. Many of the solutions already exist — hidden in natural yeast strains like perfect compositions of oils and fats. Our role is to discover them, digitize them, and make them accessible through a system that merges biology with computation.”, said Viktor Sartakov-Korzhov, founder of SMEY.
Shortages of key ingredients like cocoa butter, deforestation caused by palm oil, and CO₂ emissions driven by petroleum-derived lubricants are affecting product development timelines and increasing costs across sectors. Using NOY, SMEY has already produced a cultivated cocoa butter with 35% stearic acid, matching the performance of traditional cocoa butter in food applications, as well as a semi-solid cultivated high-oleic oil for cosmetic use with a smooth, non-greasy texture that offers high stability and skin efficacy. SMEY’s cultivated oils are produced locally in Europe, ensuring traceability and minimizing supply chain risk.
About SMEY:
SMEY is an AI-enabled techbio company developing sustainable cultivated oils and fats through precision fermentation. Headquartered in Paris, France and with an R&D center in Munich, Germany, SMEY leverages NOYTM, world’s first Neobank of Yeasts, a physical and digital library of over 1,000 non-GMO species that gives direct access to new and sustainable oils and unique enzymes.
SMEY’s flagship ingredients set a new benchmark for performance and sustainability: Noyl Silk (cHOO), a cultivated High-Oleic Oil designed for cosmetic applications, and Noyl Cocoa (cCB), a cultivated Cocoa Butter tailored for food. Noyl Silk defines a new category of designed oils, with a unique fatty acid profile that delivers superior stability, sensorial excellence, and climate resilience. Noyl Cocoa provides a sustainable, functionally equivalent alternative to cocoa butter, enabling brands to avoid the ethical and environmental trade-offs of tropical sourcing.
Produced without farmland, using minimal water, and with zero deforestation impact, SMEY’s cultivated oils empower global brands to meet clean-label and EUDR requirements while building transparent, future-proof supply chains.