Heliae, Salim Group partner to expand algae efforts in SE Asia

Heliae, an Arizona-based algae technology solutions company, announced a capital raise of  $15 million in funding from international conglomerate Salim Group’s agribusiness company, PT. PP London Sumatra Indonesia Tbk, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Agri Investments Pte. Ltd.

Frank Mars, co-founder and chairman of the board for Heliae, stated, “I am personally pleased to welcome the Salim group into the Heliae family. As one of the most prominent equatorial-based food businesses in Southeast Asia, their Chairman Anthoni Salim recognizes the need to develop new and sustainable sources of nutrition and agricultural inputs to support the region’s growing demands.”

This new round of investment will support tangible steps toward creating an international presence for Heliae’s technology by funding continued research and development at Heliae’s demonstration facility in Arizona and taking steps toward operating an R&D center in Indonesia that will serve the region. Both of these near-term efforts will support the development of large commercial facilities in both regions in the next few years.

“Frank and I are of one mind on developing the solutions to address today’s issues with soil fertility, fresh water, growing demand for fish and animal feeds and ultimately sustainable fuel,” declared Chairman for Salim Group Anthoni Salim. “Our two families are committed to impacting the world’s future in a positive way. Both the large impact we see with algae and Heliae’s comprehensive approach to developing algae technology solutions formed our rationale for this strategic investment.”

This marks a total of close to $50 million in funding that Heliae has received since launching in 2008. As a startup venture spun out of Arizona State University with the support of Science Foundation of Arizona, Heliae’s mission is to develop and validate  technology solutions for the commercial production of algae for a variety of potential uses including food & feed, fertilizer, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and fuel.

“The recognition and support of the Salim Group delivers a sense of validation to our work,” said Dan Simon, president and CEO of Heliae. “These additional funds will help us broaden our reach and allow us to build a presence in Southeast Asia. Of equal importance to Heliae is the strategic relationship we have developed with Salim’s team and alignment of both groups—we look forward to the large impact we’ll be able to make collectively.”

Heliae’s was founded in 2008 to develop and deploy technology solutions that enable society to harness the full value of algae. As innovators and integrators, Heliae’s technology platform and precision-farming process affords our partners a turn-key solution to produce affordable, renewable materials from algae. Taking advantage of industrial byproduct streams across the globe, Heliae complements existing infrastructure to produce a wide range of products and services that fulfill the growing needs of society.

Salim Group was founded in 1949 and headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia. Today, Salim Group is known as an Asia-based global company with diversified and integrated business activities, including food, agribusiness, distribution and retail, telecommunications, automobile, building materials industry, real estate and industrial parks, hotels and resorts, banking and financial services, infrastructures, chemicals and other manufacturings, resources and international trade.

PT PP London Sumatra Indonesia Tbk (“Lonsum”) is a leading oil palm plantation company in Indonesia. Lonsum was established in 1906, and is one of Indonesia’s oldest and largest publicly listed plantation companies. It operates company-owned estates and plasma estates across North and South Sumatra, East Kalimantan, Java and Sulawesi covering mainly oil palm and rubber.