UK alt-protein startup Enough has raised €42 million ($51 million) in a Series B round co-led by Dutch food and animal feed major Nutreco and Olympic Investments, an arm of the Onassis Foundation set up by 20th century Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.
Also participating as new investors in the company were AXA IM Alts — part of French insurance giant Axa — through its AXA Impact Fund-Climate & Biodiversity, along with HAL Investments and Tailored Solutions.
Existing investors Scottish Enterprise and CPT Capital re-upped for the Series B round; the latter remains Enough’s single largest shareholder.
“The market for delicious, nutritious vegan products is growing at a pace that requires a step change in the supply of sustainable ingredients. This [funding] will supercharge our focus, which prioritises collaboration and B2B supply to maximize the pace of growth and reach into the market,” Enough CEO Jim Laird said in a statement.
Enough’s core offering is Abunda, a mycoprotein product for human consumption that is fermented from fungi using renewable ag feedstocks, including from grains.
The Glasgow-based startup says that Abunda is a complete protein, containing all essential amino acids for human nutrition as well as a high level of dietary fiber, and sells it to businesses as a base ingredient for the production of faux meat, seafood, and dairy items.
Enough has partnered with the likes of consumer goods giant Unilever, which uses Abunda in its Vegetarian Butcher line of plant-based products, and supermarket chain Marks & Spencer to develop vegan products.
Formerly known as 3F Bio, startup was founded in 2015 as a spin-out from the University of Strathclyde. It secured seed funding from Silicon Valley’s DCVC and others in July 2017, landing a £6.16 million ($8.51 million) Series A round the following year and a €17 million ($20.2 million) grant from the EU’s Horizon 2020 program in July 2019.
Enough is aiming to grow 1 million tonnes of its mycoprotein each year by 2032, which it equates to removing 5 million cows or 1 billion chickens from the global food system and cutting carbon dioxide emissions by six million tonnes over the same period. The startup claims that Abunda will be able to achieve these goals thanks to its “advantaged feed conversion, low carbon footprint, and [low] water usage.”
To get there, Enough is building a “first of its kind” protein factory, which will initially be able to produce 10,000 tonnes of Abunda per annum before ramping up to a million tonnes-plus over the next decade. The biorefinery — which will be located in the Netherlands — is being supported and funded by the EU’s Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking.
Enough says it will participate at COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference, when it is held in its home city of Glasgow this November to “highlight the merits of a high-scale impactful solution as part of the accepted need for sustainable food.”
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