Kevin Xu is Co-Founder and CEO of Fermeate, an industrial biotechnology company pioneering optogenetic control for industrial-scale precision fermentation, headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Originally from Beijing, China, Kevin earned his PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Princeton University (2019-2024), where he conducted research on sustainable biomanufacturing and synthetic biology at the Avalos Lab, and also holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Kevin was honored with Princeton's 2023 Clio Hall Award for co-creating GradFUTURES programming, and completed a venture capital internship during his PhD to develop his entrepreneurial acumen before launching Fermeate.

Kevin co-founded Fermeate in 2024 alongside labmate Saurabh Malani, translating cutting-edge optogenetics research from Princeton into a commercial platform that uses light and AI to dramatically improve fermentation yields without new infrastructure investment.

Fermeate has raised a $2M Seed round led by Newfund Capital, secured partnerships with four global food and ingredient companies, and demonstrated up to 200% increases in protein production within six months of deployment.