A Durham startup trying to change the way your favorite craft beer is brewed closed on nearly $6.1 million this week.
The raise takes Durham’s Precision Fermentation’s outside capital haul to nearly $12.1 million, according to securities filings.
The idea behind Precision came out of founding CEO Jared Resnick’s experience as a restaurateur – as well as conversations with brewers and winemakers. The fermentation process has been largely unchanged for thousands of years – even in the era of industrialization. It’s still a very manual process.
What if it could be automated? What if brewers could easily reproduce a particular product through a simple process?
“We took off thinking that we could solve all of the problems, and we just kept breaking stuff,” Resnick said. “Eventually we broke enough stuff that we were able to fix a problem, and that’s where we sit today.”
Today, Precision Fermentation offers a real-time monitoring solution that allows for more control over the fermentation process. Its flagship product, the BrewIQ System, aims to ensure consistency and increase efficiency. It’s a combination of hardware and software, with a sensor-array device that live streams data from an active fermentation. The goal is to offer a brewer complete visibility – replacing the legacy trial and error process.
The firm is currently focused on the beverage industry – beer, wine, kombucha. It’s also doing work in the yeast space. But Resnick sees the technology someday applied to any fermented product.
Right now, the 20-person company has more than 90 customers in 15 countries.
Part of the plan for the new funds is to hire in 2024.
Resnick and his wife still own West End Wine Bar and West End Billiards. But Resnick said while his wife keeps the restaurants in order, most of his focus is on Precision Fermentation.
According to an SEC filing, the latest raise came from a single investor – who Resnick declined to name.
Precision Fermentation was founded in 2017.