Olivia Ogilvie

She is also chair of the Lighthouse Canterbury Momentum Investment Committee, which plays a key role in building the next generation of Kiwi entrepreneurs. In 2024, she was named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list.

When it comes to running a start-up, Dr Olivia Ogilvie will be the first person to tell you that no two days on the job are ever the same. In her line of work, “facing challenges and finding solutions is a daily activity”.

“But,” she says, “I can’t imagine what it would be like if everything was smooth sailing!”

Olivia is the co-founder and CEO of Opo Bio, a company that supplies ingredients to the biomanufacturing industry, including cells sourced from New Zealand livestock such as sheep, pigs and cows.

Founded on the idea that meat and other high-value animal products grown from animal cells – without raising or slaughtering animals – is more ethical and sustainable than traditional farming, the company is committed to advancing biotechnology and transforming global food systems. Through its cell line manufacturing, Opo Bio is working to make cultivated meat production and the wider biomanufacturing industry more efficient and scalable, while also supplying high-value cell-derived products such as collagen to the medical and cosmetics industry.

Olivia’s entry into the world of biomanufacturing start-ups came off the back of a PhD in biochemistry at the University of Auckland, where her research focused on the relationships between food allergens, food processing and protein structure.

And science was in the family for the 30-year-old, who as a teenager grew up reading New Scientist magazine. With both her parents holding science degrees themselves, from a young age Olivia says she was drawn “to the quest for research-backed applied scientific knowledge”. Her parents also instilled in her “an attitude to go out there, have fun and just do it – that if you put your mind to it, anything is possible.”

Through her PhD, Olivia learnt “countless scientific techniques” but her biggest learning, she says, “was honing my critical thinking, evidence-based decision-making and problem-solving skills. Everything I do at Opo requires these skills”.

Another key takeaway from her time at the University of Auckland was tapping into a community of entrepreneurship, especially through programmes such as Momentum, Return on Science and Chiasma.

“It was through these groups that I was first exposed to the science commercialisation and start-up space,” she says. “Before this, I had no idea that cool technology was being spun out into companies in New Zealand – I had never heard about this space before, and loved it.”

After finishing her PhD, Olivia began a postdoctoral position at the University of Canterbury as well as an internship at Matū, an early-stage deep tech venture capital fund, “to further hone my tech commercialisation skills”. And in 2022, she co-founded Opo Bio, along with her fellow University of Auckland alumna Dr Laura Domigan.

Today, in addition to her role at Opo, Olivia continues to work part-time at the University of Canterbury, where she earned her undergraduate degree, as a senior research fellow. She also plays a key role in building the next generation of entrepreneurs as chair of the Lighthouse Canterbury Momentum Investment Committee. Last year, she was named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list for her work with Opo.

And while Opo continues to grow, launching a start-up hasn’t been easy.
“The biggest challenge we’ve faced as a company has been around capital raising. Building a biotech company is expensive, and biology is intrinsically limited by time – things can’t just grow faster! My biggest learning from this to date is to start earlier than you think and trust your gut.”