NSW biotech Cauldron Ferm became the first startup to win two years in a row at the Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards, after taking out Best Regional Startup in both 2024 and 2025.
The award, supported by Carta, recognises an outstanding startup located outside of the state capitals, which demonstrates strong growth, boldness in execution and expresses a clear vision for the region they live and work in.
Cauldron is pioneering the next frontier in biomanufacturing to transform how everything from food to fibres, animal feed, fuels, and more are created using precision fermentation.
Founded in 2022 by Michele Stansfield and David Kestenbaum, the deep tech startup is based in Orange, three-and-a-half hours west of Sydney.
It’s been a busy 18 months for Cauldron, which raised a $9.5 million in Series A in April last year, then announced David Weiner as chief technology officer.
On top of that, the startup scored $4.3 million from the federal government’s Industry Growth Program and then 12 months ago, received Queensland government funding to build a biomanufacturing facility in the tropical north, as well as grant support from the US Department of Defense for a US-based facility.
The Cauldron Bio-fab in Mackay, the heart of Queensland’s sugar cane belt, will have the manufacturing capacity to supply a range of sectors. Sugar fuels the hyper-fermentation process.
The plant’s annual production of more than 1000 tonnes will produce key inputs for the food, nutrition, materials, beauty, personal care, chemicals and biofuels sectors.
As Stansfield explains, by co-locating with feedstock producers, Cauldron is creating new demand and value-add for regional supply chains, embedding itself into the economic fabric of the community and reducing transport emissions and input costs.
It also decentralises high-tech job creation, spreading economic opportunity beyond capital cities. It also aligns with government and industry efforts to rebuild sovereign capability outside metro hubs.
Cauldron’s hyper-fermentation technology enables the creation of proteins, materials, and specialty chemicals with dramatically lower environmental impact—reducing electricity usage by 55%,and water by 20%.
The Orange plant is fully booked at demo scale, with six customers across food, nutrition, beauty, chemicals, and materials sectors.
Meanwhile, the team has grown to 25.
Operations manager Jacqui Wilkinson accepted the Best Regional Startup 2025 award on behalf of the Cauldron team.
“It means a lot to win.The hard work and effort, the amount of hours that we pour into what we do – it just makes it worthwhile,” she said.
“One of the best things that I find is I really like seeing when people realise what we’re doing and where we’re heading. You see it light up in their eyes and it’s really special to me.”
“We want to start getting out there and showing what we can do more. Our goal is that we want to help produce more resources for the world more efficiently and create a more sustainable future.”
Cauldron shows that regional deep tech isn’t a constraint—it’s a competitive edge.
This article is brought to you by Startup Daily, with the support of Carta.
Thank you to our Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards 2025 partners:
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.