DolCas Biotech: Passion for Nature, People and the Human Potential

The Silicon Review

Present day food scenario is as such that the palate and the flavors in what we eat take the top spot while nutritional values take a back seat. But the truth is that the human body needs foods that provide the necessary micronutrients. The compromise in the new wave of foods just may come from the functional benefits added into foods, from potent plant, marine and mineral actives.

While there are many nutritional ingredients suppliers who produce such ingredients, there are only a few who produce nutritional ingredients that are clinically studied and proven safe. DolCas Biotech is a leading natural products ingredient firm that specializes in the commercial development and market positioning of clinically studied, patented brands for the dietary supplement, functional foods and beverages industry.

DolCas Biotech partners with manufacturers and scientists around the globe to co-develop, research, market and educate formulators and consumers alike - on the use of patented, clinically-studied nutritional and botanical ingredients. The company has territory-specific or global rights to these premium ingredients, which helps it drive the market. This strategy has made their end- formulations household names in multiples regions of the world.

The company’s primary location is Landing, New Jersey which also houses two out of three of DolCas’ sister companies, Orcas Naturals and Unique Encapsulation Technologies (UET). Its third sister company is DolCas Botanosys, located in Bikaner, India. Orcas Naturals focuses on the fulfilment of quality bulk, generic herbal, and nutritional ingredients requests that assist its manufacturing/ formulation partners with bringing their product to market.

Its Unique Encapsulation Technologies (UET) business was birthed out of customers’ desire to keep a tighter pulse on their supply-chain process without needing to repeatedly hand their project off to vendor after vendor. As more and more of DolCas’ ingredient customers described these production hurdles, K.G Rao, Founder and CEO of DolCas Biotech found himself inspired to take up the challenge. But he approached it from the perspective of offering a more comprehensive solution. So, he developed a proprietary banding process to avail liquid formulations to a then-budding but still-growing vegan/vegetarian friendly audience while providing the streamlined procurement, encapsulation and packaging solutions that the customers were longing for.

Consumer Labs, a well-regarded consumer protection entity recently (2020) named UET to be among the only 49% of manufacturers in the industry who were found in compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). “This has a been good form of validation of our internally-held standards. We have many repeat and expanding relationships, because they trust our quality and appreciate our diligence in providing a strong paper trail on our ingredients” says Mr. Rao.

Bringing Food and Technology Closer

There was a time, years ago, when the only foreseeable future for the merger of food and technology was the mainstreaming of highly- processed, ultra-convenient astronaut-like foods. For a while, it seemed like the food and dietary supplement sectors were headed in that direction. But the consumer’s demand for sustainability, respect for native food cultivation and culturally-informed consumption and preparation practices has now encouraged the use of more sensitive and less invasive forms of technology.

DolCas Biotech is a big proponent of ingredients that are sourced naturally. Many of its ingredients for instance, are sustainably manufactured to reduce or eliminate the requirement of solvent use, while still ingeniously allowing the most active parts of the plants to be concentrated and delivered in effective doses. The company believes in rigorous scientific inquiry and technology investments which are applied to its ingredients to ensure consistency of manufacturing method, activity of the deliverable, and/or presence of complementary actives native to the plant that may have otherwise been lost. These technology-assisted splendid efforts have been proven to optimize the plant’s bioactivity and/ or functionality.

Growing Organically

The family of companies has grown in a vertically-integrated operation. It has expanded from the original expertise of supplying generic actives, to now producing some of the raw materials itself at its facilities in India. Upping the bar, it has included premium ingredients wherein the science and safety studies on them are directed and often financed by use. Rounding things out, it manufactures end products in unique delivery formats, like liquid, vegetarian capsules and sachets, among others.

DolCas Botanosys is the company’s latest outing. It was established in 2017 and is the company’s India- held cooperative through which it manufactures raw materials, many of which are native to India and Ayurvedic medicine. “Hailing from India myself, this step toward greater oversight and control over our ingredient distribution and formulation business made perfect sense and has made it easier for us to stand out in a crowded market where adulteration and contamination are still troubling concerns,” says the CEO. The company’s full service offerings on the encapsulation side have expanded over the last year or two, to include bottling as well as label design, printing and placement.

Road Ahead

DolCas Biotech is now positioning itself to offer its premium ingredients in ready-to-bottle formulations, already encapsulated or available in gummy-formats for quick go-to-market opportunities. Considering how businesses are changing, it is adapting to not only offer bulk, raw materials, but additionally looking to offer motivated, perhaps smaller companies a turn-key option to move from concept to commercialization quickly and conveniently. The company is looking to expand its portfolio of patented, clinically studied, health-benefit ingredients over the next 5 years, both by partnership and internal ingenuity. “We are also looking to reinvest in expanding the research dossiers of our current actives,” explains Mr. Rao. DolCas Biotech is also interested in developing/co-developing innovative delivery formats that can expand the reach and use of natural therapeutics into larger and more conventional markets.

The Leader Upfront

K.G. Rao, Founder and CEO: Hailing from an entrepreneurial family, K.G. is a great leader who believes in perseverance and strategic planning. He began his entrepreneurial journey by trading within the chemicals and pharmaceuticals industry. He moved into the natural products business accidently while helping a colleague with the one-off sourcing of a weight management product in the early 90’s.