Overview

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Our iGEM journey has been shaped by our motivation to create a product that can positively impact the scientific community and the general public, which is aptly portrayed in our consistent efforts to incorporate feedback from our stakeholders - for the present and future of the project. Delineating the commercial potential of a cosmetic product requires careful assessment of its socioeconomic implications on the customer and the market, as well as its utility. We began by streamlining our intentions using the golden circle to understand better the project's why, how, and what. What followed was understanding the user and the market by interacting with our stakeholders, conducting consumer surveys, and conducting market and PESTEL analyses, which helped us shape our ideal consumer profile and chart our unique value proposition. Further, we identified the unmet needs of the users and the opportunities they brought with them. Later, we made long-term developmental plans and analysed the impact our project could have once it was introduced to the real world. Here, we share a detailed analysis of the users, the stakeholders and our team.

Unmet Needs And Opportunities

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The cosmetics segment under the “beauty and personal care” category has been booming for decades, with new products and formulations launching weekly. In 2023, skincare was the most popular beauty product category, covering nearly 40% of the total market share^[1].
However, overconsumption comes at the cost of a compromised ecosystem where natural resources are exploited continuously and waste is generated incessantly.

But what’s more important is: “Do customers care about sustainability?”

“The rise of sustainability isn’t just a trend; it is a shift in consumer consciousness,” stated Dania Fayyaz, SAP North America Sustainability program manager. This shift in trend within the market landscape has been driven by increased consumer consciousness and the desire to use environmentally friendly and ethically sourced products ^[2]. While it is to be noted that there still exists a tendency to prioritise cheap and unethically produced products, the transition amongst the public towards a space where they’re ready to account for what’s good for the environment and how their current decisions, environmentally, are going to affect their future generations has been extremely rapid in the past few years. A study by Bain showed that consumers are ready to pay close to a 15%-20% premium for sustainable products in India ^[3]. Still, the question remains: why is the share of consumers prioritising sustainable products over cheap and inexpensive ones greater than the ones who don’t?
The answer is that most companies that claim to be “green” and “environmentally conscious” are not transparent about their production processes, and the consumer feels disconnected from the product. This creates an opportunity for a sustainable company or product that is open to innovation and formulated to serve the consumer’s needs, such as PETal ^[4],[5].

To seize this opportunity as a company, PETal must carefully assess the risks associated with operating as a B2B (business-to-business) or a B2C (business-to-consumer) company.
PETal’s brand is providing biotechnological solutions for the production of natural products. Initially, we would require a large amount of money to be invested, which would be used in setting up the production unit, raw materials, land and water, patenting, labour, contractors and marketing, and sourcing enough funding as a new company in the market can be challenging. To mitigate the troubles of establishing a foothold in the market, PETal will start as a sandalwood oil raw material distribution company to businesses with an established market, the B2B approach. This would allow us to test the waters, understand the market first-hand, learn to make better market predictions, gather enough capital to expand the company and start synthesising other essential oils and medicinally important terpenoids. More about our problem statement, solution and manufacturing process can be found on the Implementation page.

Once enough disposal capital has accumulated, we will expand our portfolio as a B2C company and manufacture our products.

The following sections will delve into the future of PETal as a B2B company in more detail.

Understanding The User And The Market

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The Consumer

A strong foundation in customer value is integral in cultivating a strong brand identity. The consumer is at the receiving end of things. They are the product's end users, and their perception of a product defines its value. Offering value to the customer, not just in the monetary sense, but also making them feel like a valuable part of the production process by engaging the community using social media platforms, surveys and interviews and creating connections between the customer and the product ensures that the product caters to the buyers' preferences to secure customer loyalty and satisfaction. PETal is a product designed to serve the cosmetic industry and intends to keep the customer’s feedback of paramount importance.
Our team discussed the project’s future with the stakeholders by conversing with them. We also conducted a comprehensive consumer survey to assess how receptive the consumers will be to the product.

In Conversation with Our Stakeholders

The conversations with our stakeholders led us to explore PETal’s future as a company. While doing so, we interacted with companies with a dedicated customer base for sandalwood oil or oil-based products.

iGEM Summer School

The summer school held in July helped us embark on an entrepreneurial journey in iGEM - they discussed the fundamentals of how an iGEM team should approach entrepreneurship, the criteria for the best Supporting Entrepreneurship prize and the subjects of market analysis, business models, SWOT and PESTEL analysis and outlining a realistic project timeline for the project. We also learned the art of pitching, the importance of the presentation and branding a product.

Fig. 1: Certificate given by iGEM Startup Summer School

Interacting with Dr Nagendra from Mysore Sandalwood Factory:

At the beginning of our project, we interacted with Dr Nagendra from the Mysore Sandalwood Factory, India's largest sandalwood oil-producing factory. The factory falls under the control of the Government of India and was established around 100 years ago (find more about our conversation here). While looking around the factory, Dr Nagendra showed us the various aspects of extracting sandalwood oil from the tree and explained how the process was tedious and resource-intensive. We used this opportunity to pitch our idea and introduced him to PETal. We discussed with him how synthetic biology made converting PET plastic to sandalwood oil possible. Upon further discussion, Dr Nagendra keenly agreed to take in the sandalwood oil produced by PETal.

Fig. 2: Our visit to the Mysore Oil Factory

Interacting with start-up incubators - Bangalore Bioinnovation Center and Kerala Startup Mission:

To discuss the prospects of our project, our team interacted with two government-based startup incubators - Bangalore Bioinnovation Center (BBC) and Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM).
In July, we visited Mr Malathesh L, a junior scientific officer at BBC, and pitched the idea to him. He was impressed with the novelty of the concept and discussed a potential collaboration between our institution and BBC for launching PETal as a startup. We’re discussing signing an MoU between us and our faculty advisors soon.

Later in August, we were fortunate enough to receive the opportunity to visit the KSUM office in Trivandrum. The scientific officers at KSUM showed interest in incubating PETal as a start-up as soon as we finished our proof of concept. We hope to see them again after the Jamboree in October to discuss future collaborations.

Fig. 3: Visit to Bangalore BioInnovation Centre (top), Visit to KSUM (bottom)

Interviewing Mr Vijay Deo from Holy Lama Naturals:

In August, two of our team members visited Mr Vijay Deo from Holy Lama Naturals. Mr Vijay Deo is a chemist by education and a 2nd generation entrepreneur operating Holy Lama Naturals. This Kochi-based company produces cosmetic products using essential oils and sustainably sourced ingredients.
Holy Lama Naturals is a women’s enterprise where more than 80% of the workers are women. His brand is available in India and has a considerable market presence in the UK, Netherlands and the Middle East.

Our interaction with him helped us understand the inner workings of a cosmetics company in India. Not only that, he was kind enough to show us around his factory and showed us the importance of having an entrepreneurial perspective to our project design. To quote him, “Even a vegetable vendor is an entrepreneur. It’s all about perspective”. Our meeting with him was immensely beneficial in the last few stages of our project.

Q&A:

• Do you currently use sandalwood in your products? If yes, then which ones?
  Mr Deo: Currently, our company sells over 200 products, and almost all of these products contain sandalwood oil in their composition. Most of these products result from family recipes passed over generations. We use sandalwood oil in aromatherapy, massage, ubtan, agarbatti, fixative, etc.
• Are you using natural sandalwood oil or synthetic sandalwood oil? And have you seen a decrease in its supply currently?
  Mr. Deo: Prices of natural Sandalwood Oil have skyrocketed lately due to illegal poaching and smuggling of the sandalwood tree. Exploitation of natural resources is at an all-time high right now. It takes approximately 32 days to carry out steam distillation of the sandal heartwood, which is a tedious process.
  The current price for 1kg of sandalwood oil can range between 1- 3 lakh INR, and the forest department auctions this oil. It’s not easy for us to incur such high costs. Therefore, we import sandalwood from other countries or use synthetic sandalwood oil. Not just sandalwood but almost every other essential oil today is produced using petrochemicals because managing the demand leads to exploiting the parent plant.
  (Are there no restrictions on the import of sandalwood oil?)
  No.
  (How is this synthetic sandalwood oil synthesised?)
  Synthetic sandalwood oil uses chemical processes, and no biology is involved.
• If yes, what is the consumer's attitude towards such formulations?
  People don’t mind buying synthetic sandalwood oil as long as it’s cheaper. Obviously, there’s a compromise in quality, but there isn’t much we can do about it.
• Where do you import your sandalwood oil from? What are the properties of sandalwood oil make it so valuable in the cosmetic industry?
  Mughals first came to India searching for sandalwood, and they found it in Mysore. People love sandalwood-based products because they’re a coolant, have skin-brightening properties, and are also a vital part of the “ittars” (natural perfumes) because they act as a fixative.
• Do you know about the purity aspects of sandalwood oil?
  We check purity in our in-house GCMS facility. We look for santalol peaks in the samples we have. Good quality sandalwood oil should have a 90% santalol concentration.
• Are you guys your brand or suppliers of products?
  50% of our products are dedicated to export while the rest are sold domestically.
• What is the price of your products containing sandalwood oils? Is there any price difference between sandalwood products and other products?
  We try to keep our products cost-effective, but a consumer is only interested in them when priced reasonably. Price is key for us. A product is good only when it’s cost-effective without compromising quality.
• What are the current selling numbers of products containing sandalwood oil?
  There’s a high demand for products with sandalwood oil. The demand persists regardless of the “type” of sandalwood oil available.
• Would you be ready to use our sandalwood oil in the future?
  Your project is an excellent initiative. Once completed, we would like to use your sandalwood oil as raw material in our formulations.

Mr Deo also shared that his factory was completely green, and all the waste was repurposed.

Fig. 4: Interacting with Mr Vijay Deo from Holy Lama Naturals

Consumer Analysis

With the consumer analysis, we performed an end-user analysis from a B2C company perspective.

The consumer analysis helped us establish a market niche by validating the existence of a consumer base where the younger generation (people aged 18-25) prefer sustainably produced cosmetic products and show an inclination towards skin care produced using GMOs.

The Market

A market is a system where buyers and sellers exchange goods, services and information. Understanding the market helps the company owners spot trends and opportunities in the industry, assess the existing competition within a market sector, reduce the risks and costs, reach new market segments, pivot the business in other directions and identify the target market.
To assess our target market, we conducted a market analysis where we understood the target market segment of our product using SOM - Serviceable Operable Market, SAM- Serviceable Attainable Market and TAM- Total Addressable Market. Further, we wanted to know how macroeconomic factors could affect the company, for which we conducted a PESTEL Analysis. Finally, we addressed our company's direct, indirect and future competition under competitor analysis.

Market Analysis - TAM/SAM/SOM

Fig. 5: Market Analysis as TAM/SAM/SOM

TAM (Total Addressable Market)

TAM is the maximum revenue that could be generated by a market, considering it has a 100% market share and does not have any competing companies on a global scale. The global market for essential oils was valued at 11.41 Billion USD in 2023, reaching a valuation of 12.47 billion USD in 2024. The valuation of the essential oil market is estimated to come close to 27.82 billion USD by 2032, implying a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.55% between 2023-2032 ^[6].

The CAGR values reflect the average annual growth of an investment over a said period. Assessing CAGR values is essential because it helps smoothen out year-to-year fluctuations by looking at the bigger picture ^[7].
Specifically, the global market for Sandalwood Oil was valued at 139 million USD in 2021 and is expected to reach close to 416.87 million USD by 2032. The CAGR for the Sandalwood Oil market is estimated to be around 10.5% during the forecast period ^[8].
CAGR values for larger businesses, like the sandalwood oil market, are considered favourable if they fall between 5-12%. The estimated CAGR values of the essential oil and the sandalwood oil market lie favourably in the given range and indicate a growing market landscape. In this context, the future of PETal in the essential oil market seems promising.

SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market)

SAM, a portion of TAM, gives a realistic picture of the company in the market. The company can then serve this share of TAM, assuming it’s standing in terms of its products and services being offered. Here, we target the market which is within geographical reach.
The largest market of Sandalwood Oil is India, amongst various other countries in the APAC (Asia-Pacific). The current market of Sandalwood Oil is expected to see significant growth between 2024-2028, where the APAC region is expected to contribute 63%, i.e. 7.18 billion USD, to the overall development of the market ^[9].

SOM (Serviceable Operable Market)

SOM, also known as Share of Market, is the share of SAM the company can achieve within a given timeframe. This is the most conservative aspect of market analysis - it reflects the actual market size of a company and helps companies set realistic targets.
Application-based segmentation of the Sandalwood Oil market includes cosmetics (fragrances), aromatherapy, and pharmaceuticals, where cosmetics dominate the market. Therefore, the cosmetics market in India is the SOM for PETal. The cosmetic market in India is estimated to reach a valuation of 18.4 billion USD in the forecasted period, out of which close to 40% of the market falls under the skin care segment, a large portion of the total market size. Owing to a CAGR of 3.2%, PETal’s plan of targeting the cosmetic and fragrance industry within India ensures that a considerable chunk of the SOM is where the business can be established ^[10],[11].

PESTEL Analysis

PESTEL (Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal) analysis ^[12] is a handy macro-economical tool for a business owner. To better analyse the external environment, that is, the market landscape for PETal, understand the risks associated with the company's financial standing, and build workable marketing strategies, we decided to conduct the PESTEL Analysis while considering the context of PETal as a start-up company.

Let’s understand how these factors manifest themselves in the real world.

Fig. 6: PESTEL Analysis

Political:
Understanding the political environment helps deduce how much influence the change in the political landscape could have on the company, which includes policies established by the government, changes in trade laws and tax policies.

Economical:
Economic trends affect the consumer and the business; therefore, factors like inflation rates, labour laws, and economic growth and stability in the forecasted period should be studied.

Social:
Navigating the social environment is essential for developing a product that serves the targeted demographic. Factors such as consumers' habits and lifestyles, population growth, and cultural trends help further understand consumer needs and wants.

Technological:
Technology and innovation are the foundation of any synbio-oriented company. These are not limited to hardware and software but include logistics, manufacturing, and distribution.

Environmental:
In the era of climate change and rising awareness, companies are increasingly becoming more sustainable and environmentally conscious, considering the environmental impacts of a company have become an integral part of the social entrepreneurship of a company.

Legal:
Legal checks and considerations are required to establish a company and accommodate the legal factors and laws governing business operations.

Competitor Analysis

Direct Competitors

Healthy competition amongst companies fosters innovation. Our direct competitors in the biotechnological synthesis of sandalwood oil include companies like Amyris, Isobionics, and Conagen.

Amyris: Amyris is a California-based company specialising in producing performance chemicals, fragrances and flavours, cosmetic ingredients, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals using synthetic biotechnology. It was founded in 2003 and has successfully created more than ten fermentation-based ‘ingredient’ molecules using clean chemistry, notably santalol.
Amyris uses sugarcane as feedstock and has dedicated farms to cultivate sugarcane.

Isobionics:Isobionics is another company specialising in sustainably making flavour and fragrance molecules using fermentation technology. As a subsidiary of BASF - a leading supplier of scents and flavours, Isobionics synthesises several essential oils using biotechnology, one of which being santalol, utilising sustainable agricultural waste as feedstock.

Conagen:Conagen specialises in fermentation-based production of natural ingredients, biological process development, analytical and extraction processes and industrial scale-up. The company operates facilities dedicated to synthesising terpenoids and sesquiterpenoids, including santalol.

Indirect Competitors

Our indirect competitors include companies that operate in related sectors, such as natural ingredients, flavours and fragrances, without directly focusing on biotechnological synthesis. This includes companies like Givaudan, Robertet and BASF.

These companies are well-known names in the fragrances, natural ingredients and essential oils industry by sourcing raw materials, creating customised solutions and manufacturing personal care products under their brand name. As large enterprises, they are working towards adapting more green and sustainable alternatives to their current technologies to align with a shifting trend towards “clean beauty”. Burdened by the demand for natural products and the necessity to stay sustainable, bigger companies gradually gravitate towards synthetic methods, notably biotechnologically synthesising these compounds. This has led to these companies acquiring smaller companies dedicated to synthesising valuable synthetic biotechnology products to meet demands while maintaining sustainability. For example, Isobionics, a relatively smaller company dedicated to biotechnological synthesis of flavours and fragrances, is a subsidiary of BASF. On the other hand, as 2023 came to a close, Givaudan acquired Amyris, another company offering synthetic biology-based solutions to producing natural products.

Future Competitors:

Our future competition is emerging biotechnology and consumer product companies continuously investing in consumer-centric biotechnological solutions. These can be companies like Unilever, ITC, Firmenich, and Nestlè.

Fig. 7: Competitor analysis for PETal

What makes PETal stand out is PETal’s technology. As compared to the aforementioned companies, our production method is highly scalable since our model organism, Pseudomonas putida, can not only utilise PET monomers as feedstock but can be made to grow on agricultural waste and lignocellulosic waste as feedstock for synthesising santalol as well.
While such companies pose competition for us in the future, their very existence and the fact that such companies are continuously emerging implies an existing favourable market into which PETal could be launched.
Instead of posing a threat to PETal, such an environment validates its viability and potential success in the future. It demonstrates an eager and existing consumer base ready to embrace sustainable alternatives as opposed to traditional, naturally derived essential oils.

Analysing The User And The Market

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In the previous segments, we explored the role of customers and the market in developing a business. Our interactions with our stakeholders - policy makers & government officials, start-up incubators & science perpetrators, and cosmetic & fragrance business owners helped us realise our potential as a B2B company. At the same time, a detailed consumer survey conducted by our team members made sure that the end-users' value was not overlooked. We realised our market niche amongst the youth of India who are aware and eager to take on new and revolutionary scientific breakthroughs. The market analysis revealed the Share of Market (SOM), which PETal could annex as it were to originate as a company, the macroeconomic factors that could affect its establishment as well as the existing competitive environment. These activities helped us understand our future targets and our priorities as a company. After thoroughly analysing the data we gathered using the aforementioned market tools, we outlined our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and created a Minimal Viable Product (MVP).

Ideal Customer Profile

Fig. 8: Ideal Customer Profile

Identifying our ideal customer in the B2B segment is critical to establishing a company that truly values its customers. Developing an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) ^[13] will not only simplify our targets as a company but also offer a competitive advantage, enhance customer engagement and loyalty, and help us tailor our products to the needs of our consumers.

Demographics:

• Type: A cosmetic company
• Location: India
• Profit Margin: 20-30%

Firmographics:

• Industry: A cosmetic company
• Company Size: 20-80 employees
• Organisational Structure: Privately-owned or government-owned

Psychographics:

• Values and Beliefs: Emphasis on sustainability, ethically sourced raw materials, efforts to become eco-friendly
• Interests: Following beauty and customer demand trends
• Difficulties: Difficulties in finding sustainable suppliers for raw materials, especially essential oils for cosmetic products like soaps, lotions and fragrances

A structured approach to targeting our customers will enhance customer satisfaction by aligning the product to the preferences of our ideal customers.

Minimum Viable Product

Fig. 9: PETal’s Minimum Viable Product

The purpose of a minimum viable product is to initiate iterative development using customer feedback. It is used for clinical trials and market authorisation and is a preliminary step before the product is released. Our minimal viable product will be syn-biologically produced sandalwood oil supplied to cosmetic and fragrance companies as raw materials.

Developmental Plans

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SWOT Analysis

Fig. 10: SWOT Analysis

Business Model & Exit Strategy

Fig. 11: Lean Business Model Canvas for PETal

Problem

PETal offers a sustainable alternative to synthesising natural sandalwood oil, using PET plastic as feedstock. Together, we aim to tackle the problems of plastic pollution, depletion, and exploitation of natural resources, such as sandalwood essential oils, and the lack of sustainable solutions in the skincare industry using synthetic biology.

Solution

The modularity and robustness of synthetic biological systems offer the opportunity to tackle the problem of depleting sandalwood oil reserves and rising plastic pollution by providing a standard solution.
Not just that, a biotechnological solution ensures consistency in the quality of the sandalwood oil when produced on a large scale in bioreactor conditions under supervision and continuous quality control.

Unique Value Proposition

The uniqueness of PETal lies in its ability to synthesise sandalwood oil from PET, an extremely uncommon feedstock for the biological synthesis of naturally occurring compounds, and its ability to offer a novel alternative to the traditional methods of recycling and upcycling of plastic waste, which otherwise would end up incinerated or in a landfill. PETal aims to promote sustainability and environmental consciousness, which not only strengthens the social entrepreneurship of the brand but makes it a strong marketing point for the product. The novelty and scalability of our technology make it a valuable asset for the product to enter the market and establish a niche. Moreover, PETal ensures regulatory compliance and iterative design in its approach to producing a product that caters to the market by adhering to stakeholder and consumer feedback. An innovative approach, along with the intention of making room for improvement at every step of production, makes PETal stand out as a brand.

Customer Relationships

Initially, PETal will start as a B2B company, i.e. a company dedicated to supplying raw materials to other companies. During that time, PETal's primary customers will be businesses that use sandalwood oil as raw material in their products, such as soaps, creams, perfumes, ittars, etc. Therefore, we will mainly focus on maintaining customer relationships with cosmetic and biotechnology companies in the short term. In the long term, however, we will shift our focus towards the end-users of sandalwood oil-based products as we will expand our portfolio to become a B2C company.

Customer Segments

Furthermore, we have outlined our customer segments in the short term and the long term. As a B2B company, our primary focus will be to supply raw materials to fragrance companies like Robertet and Givaudan and cosmetic companies like L’oreal, Holy Lama Naturals, and Khadi Naturals. As and when we expand our business to B2C, our primary customers will be more environmentally conscious individuals looking for more sustainable alternatives in their skincare.

Key Partners

As we build our business, we will collaborate with several experts who will serve as our key partners. To begin with, we’d need people who can help us trademark and register our products and guide us about the future aspects of the same, after which we would require funds and lab space to continue our research. For this, we plan to collaborate with our institute for lab space and incubation centres that can provide us with funds and resources to further our plans. On completing the proof of concept, we’ll contact companies that can help us carry out our pre-clinical and clinical trials to assess the quality and safety of our product before we release it to the market. Later on, we’d partner with more prominent companies for mergers and acquisitions, as well as companies that can assist us in bioreactor set-up and other technical equipment for mass production. Towards the end of this process, we will require legal help to authorise the product on the market.

Key Activities

iGEM - The first step in our journey is iGEM, where everything began. iGEM helped us become better scientists and taught us how to manage the other equally important aspects of science like educating the masses, engaging our stakeholders and gaining feedback, the entrepreneurial and legal aspects of our project, and most importantly, teamwork, coordination and leadership skills. iGEM gave us a platform to present our project, interact with like-minded people and help us expand our horizons.

Accessing funding via incubators and philanthropists - To further develop our project, we would require funding from incubation centres and philanthropic institutions ready to fund science students. This funding would complete our proof of concept after iGEM and other project development-related expenses.

Completing our proof of concept and patenting - After iGEM, we will begin completing our proof of concept and start the work to optimise our bacterial strain. We will evaluate the quality of our santalol against natural sandalwood oil once the preliminary proof of concept is established. Following successful quality checks, we'll begin patenting the optimised strain.

Pre-clinical and clinical trials - Once quality checks are completed, we will send the santalol samples to be tested for pre-clinical and clinical trials to check for any allergens or toxins to ensure the complete safety of the product user.

Getting legislative help and approvals - We would need legal advice to manage mergers and acquisitions, patents, funding, and product market authorisation. This will be followed by contacting concerned government agencies to establish the PETal as a marketable product.

Entering the market - Successful in all the previous development steps, PETal will be ready for release to the public.

Resources

Resources are an indispensable part of our project to make it a success. One of our project's first and most important resources is the efforts, knowledge and expertise of our team members, PIs, mentors and stakeholders because, without these, we wouldn’t be able to make our product flexible to the ever-evolving nature of the market and the user’s needs. With these assets at hand, the next resource necessary to build a successful product plan is an iterative approach to our Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL) cycle, which is a process involving trial and error until the product is fully developed and ready for use. Such an approach promotes continuous development and makes enough room for improvement. Further, we require funding, lab space and equipment to implement these plans. Probably the next most important resource is financial help and funding. After the product has been fully developed, we require financial, legal and supply chain expertise to patent, trademark and market the product. Another one of our essential resources is our intellectual property.

Channels

PETal will have a direct distribution channel to companies and will be sold as raw material.

Cost Structure

Freshly done with iGEM, our main expenses will be R&D. Later, building upon the idea of emerging as a B2B company first, our fixed costs will involve administrative staff salaries such as the Plant Head, the General Manager, the Quality Head, the Supply Head and the Operations Head. The fixed costs will also include the cost of the machinery, i.e. the production unit, the bioreactor and the extraction unit, as well as the workers' insurance. Variable costs will include the daily wages of the labourers, the cost of the feedstock, the cost of raw materials, costs of packaging the santalol, taxes, and electricity and water bills.

Revenue Streams

For R&D, our revenue stream will be from philanthropic organisations and grants dedicated to funding scientific research. However, in terms of building the company, we have divided the revenue streams into short-term and long-term sources of revenue. Short-term revenue streams include loans sanctioned by the government for funding research projects and establishing small businesses. In contrast, long-term revenue streams include money collected from product sales via mergers and acquisitions with partnering companies.

Our future strategy also involves an exit plan. Our choice of exit plan will be a Merger & Acquisition (M&A), in which we’d like to merge with another company ^[14]. The first option is the acquisition by a bigger fragrance or cosmetic company, i.e. a horizontal merger. Such companies have expertise in conducting clinical trials and exercising the development of natural and biotechnological synthesis of fragrance molecules, as well as carrying out product development and managing finances on a large scale.

Plan B is to have a vertical merger with a similar-sized company - preferably a plastic collection company. Such a plan will promote mutual development by providing an efficient feedstock supply to PETal and a better alternative than recycling to the plastic collection company.

While our priority is to implement a horizontal merger, if it does not happen, we plan to complete our proof-of-concept and patent the brand first. This would allow us to gather enough initial investment and focus our energy on research and development to safeguard our technology and company until we find a suitable candidate for the merger.

Financials

Fig. 12: 10-year financial timeline (2024-2033)

Funding

Our project's initial phases, including the ideation phase and iGEM, will be funded by Friends, Family and Fools (FFF), grants, crowdfunding and college support ^[15]. This forms the very first funding we receive, which supports the development of our proof-of-concept. This funding source will help us until we receive the seed funding required to fund later parts of the project.

It is in our best interest to collaborate with incubation centres set up by the Government of India, like Bangalore BioInnovation Center, Kerala Startup Mission, and Atal Incubation Center IISER Pune, to fund scientific research in their early stages, as these facilities are meant to provide seed funding as well as a lab space for carrying out experiments. We can also apply for funding via public research grants, such as the ones provided by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) ^[16], Department of Science and Technology (DST) and private research grants, such as the TATA Trust ^[17].

Additionally, we can collaborate with plastic collection and plastic recycling firms and promote mutual interests. In the later stages of our development, as we progress and showcase potential, we can raise money via venture capital, which could help us get the highest return possible for investment if we have significant potential.

Cost Analysis

A product's true marketability lies in its cost-effectiveness. Although it is complicated to estimate the revenue and expenses of a company in its R&D phase, to ensure that our sandalwood oil is sustainable and cost-effective, we started laying down a rough estimate of the capital required to establish our synthesis unit. This process involves categorising costs into two main types: investments and fixed costs.

Cost Breakdown

The investments cover the expenses required to cover the establishment of the production unit, which include:

• Acquiring land and factory space
• A steriliser and mechanical shredder for pre-treatment
• Rotocel for chemical extraction
• A bioreactor for synthesis
• Centrifuge, GCMS and HPLC for extraction
• A GMO waste treatment plant for safety
• Solar panels in case of high electricity costs

The fixed costs include monthly expenses required to run the facility, this includes:

• Labour costs^[18]
• Electricity bills (if solar panels haven’t been installed)^[19],[20]
• Cost of buying culture media
• Bioreactor sterilisation costs
• Wastewater treatment costs

The cost of obtaining feedstock is significantly lower than other expenses. Hence, the value has been omitted for the simplicity of this overview.

Fig. 13: Estimated investment costs

Fig. 14: Estimated fixed costs

The estimated cost of establishing the unit is INR 1,59,90,000, while the monthly running costs are INR 2,93,215. Using this, we calculated the annual running expenditure, which came out to be

INR 2,93,215 x 12 = INR 35,18,580

PETal’s Sandalwood Oil

The current price for one millilitre of natural sandalwood oil is INR 700 ^[21]. Data suggests that a sandalwood tree takes 20-30 years to mature and gives only 700ml of oil per tree, and extracting the oil can take up to 30-32 days.

The following calculations will estimate the cost of PETal’s sandalwood oil against natural sandalwood oil. These calculations involve several assumptions based on the data we obtained by modelling.

As per the results obtained using Flux Balance Analysis, the predicted output of santalol per gram-bacterial dry weight of the bacteria is 393.5451 mg/hour ~ 0.85 mL/hour. Assuming the bioreactor runs for 12 hours a day and 30 days a month, the estimated output is

0.85 mL x 12 x 30 = 305 mL per gram Dw per month

Assuming 20g bacterial Dw per litre of culture in a glucose-limited media in a 100L bioreactor ^[22]

20g x 100L = 2000g for 100L

Calculating the final monthly output,

0.305 x 2000 = 610L of santalol/month

Comparing this against the monthly running costs of the production unit, the per litre cost of synthesising PETal’s sandalwood oil comes out to be

INR 2,93,215 / 610L = INR 480.6

The santalol produced by PETal is more sustainable and significantly cheaper than the natural sandalwood oil, which costs INR 700/mL.

Risk Analysis

To make our business a success, it is essential to address different risks that could occur during the development. The following PDF analyses the risks along with their corresponding de-risking strategies.

Intellectual Property

For our intellectual property, we had the opportunity to interact with Mr. Ashutosh Prachand, the director at Leidenfrost Innovations. During our meeting with him, he discussed the possibility of protecting our intellectual property and patenting the parts we designed for the project. He addressed that the plasmid parts we created for Pseudomonas putida were new parts that we had made and needed to be safeguarded to protect our technology. Because our proof of concept hasn’t been completed yet and the system is yet to be fully optimised from an upscaling perspective, he suggested that we patent our plasmids first and then the working system once the proof of concept was established. He suggested that we apply for a provisional patent, in which case we would have to finish the POC and apply for a full patent within a year by presenting the full data backed by experiments.
Legal protection would give us a first-mover advantage and an upper hand over our rivals since producing natural products from PET plastic waste is a relatively new field. Even though we have not applied to file the patent yet, we have put an action plan in place to capitalise on the opportunity as soon as iGEM is over.

Fig. 15: Plan of Action for Intellectual Property

Timeline

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Establishing a timeline is essential for charting a plan, a roadmap for our journey and a progress meter for our stakeholders. Below, you can find a timeline for the future which maps out the important milestones for our project.

Fig. 16: Project timeline across ten years (2024-2033)

Long Term Impact

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Towards the end of the project, we decided to assess the direct and indirect impact the project can have on its surroundings, which includes people and the environment.

Direct Impact

If our assumptions hold true, we expect PETal to become a viable product and revolutionise how the general public sees plastic recycling. We hope to see a significant reduction in the existing reserves of PET plastic waste and potentially of other plastics as well. We hope our methodology can help save sandalwood trees and restore their plantations as time passes and the demand gap for sandalwood oil is gradually reduced. Another essential positive direct impact we’d like to have is promoting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

In an effort to promote quality education (SDG 4) and the essence of collaborative efforts (SDG 17) in a project, the entrepreneurship team and the education team came together to organise BioGenesis 1.0, a collaborative initiative between IISER TVM, IISER Kolkata and IIT Bombay to promote responsible entrepreneurial education and the art of establishing a start-up for future iGEMers and students in academia. The event received immensely positive feedback from the students across all three institutes.

Fig. 17: The online collaborative event BioGenesis 1.0

Indirect Impact

Being an undergraduate team coming up with a novel idea of waste upcycling, we foresee a shift in the perspective science and the industry have towards PET plastic. This shift could indirectly impact the masses and lead to PET plastic being used more frequently as a feedstock for microorganisms used for biotechnological applications. Upscaling the project would also shift the tides in the cosmetic industry by normalising biotechnologically produced raw materials in cosmetic products, with an increasing inclination towards more sustainable alternatives.