Fermelanta—a Japanese startup engineering bacteria to produce alkaloids from morphine to berberine—wowed judges at last month’s Japan agrifoodtech meetup organized by AgFunder, JETRO Startup and SDG Impact Japan.
New Culture says it is on track to produce ‘animal-free’ mozzarella at cost parity with its conventional counterpart within three years.
The first products featuring Brevel’s neutral-tasting algae protein are expected to hit the market in 2024.
Australian startup Nourish Ingredients uses precision fermentation to make fats with an ‘authentic animal taste, aroma and natural cooking reactions’ for the next generation of meat alternatives.
Changes in precision fermentation will “make a lot of current technology obsolete,” says Bill Liao, general partner at global VC fund SOSV.
Perfect Day plans to sell its consumer brands so it can focus on its core business as a b2b supplier of whey protein via precision fermentation.
The bioeconomy will only take off if we can find a way to make the precision fermentation process more efficient, says Berkeley-based startup Pow.bio.
Impossible Foods has added Ginkgo Bioworks as a defendant in its patent infringement lawsuit against foodtech rival Motif Foodworks over meaty-tasting heme proteins.
US dairy farmers have urged the FDA to crack down on ‘animal free dairy milk’ labels “before this situation spins out of control.”
Thanks to advances in synthetic biology, we can now engineer microbes to produce everything from enzymes to dairy proteins in fermentation tanks. But when does it make commercial sense?
Used in everything from lipsticks to alt meat, tropical oils come with environmental costs. But can microbes give them a run for their money?
Between 2005-2012, venture capitalists poured millions into startups attempting to make fuel from microalgae, getting their fingers badly burned in the process. But could algae be gearing up for a second bloom?
“We’ve got a groundswell of young people who are trained in molecular biology,” says SynBioBeta founder Dr John Cumbers: “They’re not scared of GMOs. But they are scared of the environmental impacts of climate change and the unsustainability of our consumer culture.”
Sweegen secures FEMA GRAS status for the sweet protein brazzein via precision fermentation; Conagen says the same tech can produce the vivid red pigment carminic acid (without crushing insects).
Danone’s corporate venture arm Danone Manifesto Ventures has taken a minority stake in Imagindairy, an Israeli startup making ‘animal-free’ dairy proteins via precision fermentation (using microbes instead of cows).
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.
In part two of our roundup from the Future Food-Tech summit in San Francisco, we highlight startups spanning everything from molecular farming to upcycled prebiotic fibers.
While investor sentiment has soured on alternative proteins, last month’s Future Food Tech summit in San Francisco attracted a record number of foodtech startups showcasing everything from foodie chatbots to upcycled prebiotic fibers.
Australian startup Cauldron has raised AUS $10.5m to scale a platform enabling firms to produce high-value ingredients via precision fermentation more efficiently via a continuous process.
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