Norfalk

NorFalk is a Danish biotech company developing bio-based chemicals through biocatalysis, using enzymes to build molecules from renewable raw materials rather than petrochemicals. The company’s first product is a high-performance surfactant made from sunflower oil and sugar. Surfactants are the molecules that make shampoo foam and detergent clean, they appear in almost every consumer product, and the vast majority are still derived from petrochemicals or palm kernel oil. Bio-based alternatives exist, but they have typically required a trade-off on performance, cost, or both.

The market NorFalk is entering is under real pressure to change: tightening regulation on conventional chemistries and palm-based feedstocks, alongside public reformulation commitments from the largest consumer goods companies. The immediate focus is personal care, home care and industrial cleaning, but biocatalysis is not limited to surfactants. The same platform reaches into the ester and amide markets, several times larger again. As Co-founder Kasper Falkenberg puts it: “When I look back in 10 years, I really hope we have changed something.”

NorFalk is based in the greater Aarhus area and was founded in 2022 by CEO & Co-founder Kasper Falkenberg and CTO & Co-founder Nicklas Nørgaard, who met while studying chemical and biotech engineering. Before developing a single product, they spent months in dialogue with the chemical industry to understand where the real needs were, and they have kept that principle since: nothing is developed unless a customer has asked for it. Together with the NorFalk team, they are building a company focused on replacing fossil-based chemistry with something the industry does not have to compromise on.

Key facts

• Danish biotech company founded in 2022
• Biocatalysis platform for producing bio-based chemicals
• First product is a high-performance bio-based surfactant, made without petrochemicals or palm kernel oil
• Platform potential across the significantly larger ester and amide markets

Team

• Kasper Falkenberg, CEO & Co-founder
• Nicklas Nørgaard, CTO & Co-founder