Industry City firm impacting global food chain grows footprint tenfold

Aanika Biosciences is on mission for transparent food tracking

May 6, 2023 Special from Industry City

Photos courtesy of Aanika Biosciences.

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SUNSET PARK — Industry City, the 35-acre innovation hub on the Brooklyn waterfront, recently announced that Aanika Biosciences, a biotech firm on a mission to make the global food chain more safe and transparent, is expanding its footprint from 2,500 to more than 25,000 square feet at the campus. The new space will provide additional offices for Aanika Biosciences’ growing team, as well as room to grow its research and development, wet lab testing, and biomanufacturing capabilities.

Vishaal Bhuyan, CEO and founder of Aanika Biosciences.

Since arriving at Industry City in 2018, Aanika Biosciences already expanded its square footage once from 400 to 2,500, and will soon occupy 27,087 square feet, with plans to more than double its current employee headcount by the end of 2023.

“The effects of climate change on our planet are palpable and undeniable, but few are looking at its impact on food safety as closely as Aanika,” said Vishaal Bhuyan, CEO and founder of Aanika Biosciences. “Our space at Industry City is a direct reflection of our continued growth and progress in identifying solutions that help provide the world with a safer, more transparent food supply chain.”

Jeff Fein, Senior Vice President of Leasing at Industry City.

Aanika Biosciences produces edible, microbial tags that can be applied to food products for precise tracking and traceability, mitigating contamination risk to the consumer, and protecting the safety and security of the world’s food supply. The company is backed by government funding and venture capital from Draper Associates, SOSV, and Adit Ventures, among others, with several forthcoming projects with large NGOs and multinational companies globally.

“At Industry City, our team has executed complex build-outs for wet labs and manufacturing centers, so when Aanika Biosciences wanted to expand, I was confident we could deliver the world class lab they needed,” said Jeff Fein, Senior Vice President of Leasing at Industry City. “Aanika choosing to grow within Industry City further establishes the campus as a great home for the biotech and life sciences sector. We’re excited to be part of their continued success.”

Aanika Biosciences is part of the rapidly-growing Innovation Campus at Industry City comprising industry-disrupting biotech and life sciences businesses, including Cresilon, makers of VETIGEL®, the first hemostatic gel for the veterinary market that stops bleeding in seconds, Melonfrost, a startup whose proprietary software combines machine learning and evolutionary biology to steer the evolution of organisms in real-time, and lab space for NYU Langone Health, one of the nation’s premiere academic medical centers. To date, biotech and life sciences tenants occupy more than 145,000 square feet of space in the upper floors of Industry City. This number continues to rise and recently attracted BuildsBio to host its upcoming May event, “Engineering Biology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution” for the first time at the campus.

Industry City offers a range of leasing opportunities, including: small to mid-sized offices, large office spaces with diverse floor plans, tailored storefronts and turn-key retail spaces, content and production studios, and laboratories and production spaces for biosciences. The highly amenitized campus draws a clear parallel to any biotech campus or hub; with its abundant outdoor space, on-site fitness facilities, robust food and beverage program, live events and programming, and convenient proximity to Brooklyn’s rich talent pool, Industry City is New York’s unique response to the Innovation Hub model.

For more information, please visit https://industrycity.com/leasing.

About Aanika Biosciences

Aanika Biosciences was co-founded in 2018 by Vishaal Bhuyan after he personally experienced the consequences of ordering fresh, ethically sourced seeds and receiving stale, contaminated products instead. He made it his mission to create a safer food supply by finding a way to track, trace and authenticate products. Aanika’s customized microbial-based tags help companies gain valuable insights about their supply chains, help their customers make better consumption choices, and create a more sustainable world.

About Industry City

Industry City is a 6 million-square-foot mixed-use complex comprising 16 buildings on the waterfront in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The property’s ownership – led by Belvedere Capital, Jamestown and Angelo Gordon & Co. – is transforming the complex, while cultivating a diverse tenant mix that fuses today’s burgeoning innovation economy with traditional manufacturing and artisanal craft. To date, the transformation has included over $450 million of infrastructure improvements, the addition of destination courtyards, experience-driven dining, design retail and other amenitization and event programming. This work is paving the way toward a vibrant and diverse community made up of forward-thinking companies, thoughtful designers, and the next generation of artisans.

The unique 8,500-person campus currently houses more than 550 businesses. Industry City boasts three outdoor courtyard spaces with regularly programmed arts and cultural events, and scores of food and beverage vendors specializing in a wide range of cuisines from all over the globe. Industry City is accessible by the D, N, R trains and multiple bus routes including the B35 and B37. Parking is available at 37th and 2nd Avenue, along with bike racks and five CitiBike stations. www.industrycity.com.