Farmless—a Dutch startup using carbon dioxide, rather than sugar, to fuel its fermentation-based food production platform—has raised €1.2 million ($1.3 million) in a pre-seed round.
Armed with $15m in seed funding from Fall line capital, the MIT E14 fund, and FootPrint Coalition, Israeli startup Chunk Foods is building a factory for its plant-based whole cuts of meat.
Better Bite Ventures, a fund focused on alt protein startups in APAC, has invested in four startups under its early-stage First Bite initative.
The sustainability credentials of microbial fermentation—used to make everything from lactic acid to ‘animal-free’ whey protein—would be greatly enhanced were the technology less dependent on food crops to produce its primary feedstock: sugar. But how viable are the alternatives?
Liberation Labs—a startup on a mission to address capacity bottlenecks in biomanufacturing—has secured $30 million in equipment financing to support its first commercial-scale precision fermentation facility in the US.
Aqua Cultured Foods has raised $5.5 million in a seed round led by Stray Dog Capital to expand its fermentation-based production platform for high-protein whole cuts of fungi-based seafood.
The #1 priority for new trade association Food Fermentation Europe is helping startups navigate the regulatory pathway for approving novel foods in the EU: a lengthy and uncertain process that right now, they argue, is “completely unclear.”
Thanks to advances in synthetic biology, startups are now programming microbes to express everything from egg albumin without chickens to whey protein without cows. But when animal products are no longer made by animals, what do we call them?
Is it more efficient to make “animal-free” proteins in plants or fermentation tanks? Motif FoodWorks, which currently makes myoglobin via precision fermentation, is now exploring whether corn could also serve as an effective host via a partnership with molecular farming startup IngredientWerks.
Swedish startup Millow is developing minimally processed products made from oats and mycelium grown in a patent-pending fermentation process it claims uses a fraction of the water and energy used by players such as Quorn.
Wild Microbes has raised $3.3m in a pre-seed round to help unlock the potential of precision fermentation via gene editing technology it claims can enable the use of a broader range of microbial hosts.
Investors are reluctant to fund large-scale fermentation facilities before products are tested in the marketplace, says Superbrewed Food, which has paused plans to build out its own biomass fermentation plant in Minnesota and is now aiming to scale up with a partner so it can still enter the market this year.
Sales of plant-based meat have slowed in the US market following a surge in the early months of the pandemic, but the category hasn’t fallen off a cliff.
Michroma will use the funds to commercialize its line of natural, fungi-derived food colorants before moving on to flavors, fragrances and more.
The Kitchen expects “at least half” of new investments to result from venture studio activities rather than from direct investments into existing ventures.
Over 60% of the global population lives in Asia with just 20% of farmland, and a growing middle class demanding high-status animal protein. We need to create better alternative protein products for the Asian consumer, writes Sonalie Figueiras.
Roughly 94% of agrifood corporates’ total emissions lie in their supply chain; 33% of those are linked to animal agriculture.
Synonym connects precision fermentation startups with production infrastructure to help them unlock the promise of synthetic biology.
Alternative protein technologies like casein and whole-cut “meats” are the first investments from PeakBridge and Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity’s fund.
Alt meat, seafood, dairy, and egg companies can use the reporting frameworks to standardize their ESG impact for investors and consumers.
