Brie cheese i a wooden board by Standing Ovation

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Standing Ovation Raises €3.75M for Fermented Casein, Eyes 2025 USA Launch with New CEO

French biotech Standing Ovation, which specializes in precision-fermented casein for animal-free dairy, announces it has raised €3.75 million in Series A+ funding. The funds will accelerate the company’s growth and the distribution and sales of its flagship protein ingredient — Advanced Casein — in the USA in 2025. This new capital adds to the €12 million secured in the original round, led by Astanor Ventures in 2022. Peakbridge, Seventure, Good Startup, Big Idea Ventures, and the industrial group Bel also participated. The Paris-based startup has also received €3 million in funding from the French government and Bpifrance to accelerate the production of its fermented caseins, bringing the total raised by the company to €23 million in just four years. Laetitia de Panafieu, the Astanor representative on …

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Investment Climate Podcast

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Investment Climate Podcast: Franz Seubert of AIPERIA – How to get funded in 2024

In this podcast series, co-produced by vegconomist, Alex Shandrovsky interviews investors about benchmarks for funding Alt Proteins in 2024 and uncovers the investment playbooks of successful Climate Tech CEOs and Leading VCs. Podcast Host Alex Shandrovksy is a strategic advisor to numerous global food tech accelerators and companies, including alternative proteins and cellular agriculture leaders. His focus is on investor relations and post-raise scale for agrifood tech companies. Episode 14: Franz Seuber of  AIPERIA In this episode, Alex talks to Franz, co-founder and CEO of AIPERIA, a German based SaaS solution that helps suppliers and retailers in sustainable demand planning for fresh food by enabling end-to-end planning from production to supermarket shelves to ensure only what is sold is produced. Their solution is currently used …

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MATR Foods secures loan from EIB

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MATR Foods Secures €20M From European Investment Bank to Construct First Full-Scale Facility

Danish meat alternatives producer MATR Foods has signed a €20 million loan agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB). The funding, which is supported by the European Commission’s InvestEU initiative, will allow MATR to construct its first full-scale production facility and conduct more R&D. This will enable the company to produce over 3,000 tonnes of its product per year. On LinkedIn, MATR claimed it was the first ever meat alternatives company to gain the support of the EIB. Healthy and sustainable MATR uses fungi fermentation to produce meat alternatives made from local crops such as beetroot, potatoes, lupin, and peas. The products are said to require minimal processing and are lower in fat than previous-generation meat alternatives. The fermentation process provides an umami flavor that …

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Novameat shredded beef

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Novameat Secures €17.4M in Oversubscribed Round, Launches Improved Shredded Plant-Based Beef

Barcelona’s Novameat, a B2B company specializing in different cuts of plant-based chicken, beef, and turkey, announces it has raised €17.4 million in an oversubscribed Series A round led by Sofinnova Partners and Forbion via its BioEconomy Fund. Existing investors like Unovis Asset Management, Praesidium, and Rubio Impact Ventures also reinvested, betting on the company’s realistic alternatives to meat. The new capital will allow Novameat to expand its product range, including the launch of a new, improved shredded plant-based beef product — Shredded Nova-b*ef — on September 16th. The funds will also help boost commercial activities in new regions and scale production using its proprietary MicroForce technology. Giuseppe Scionti, CEO and founder of Novameat, commented, “This funding marks a significant milestone in our journey, and we …

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a splashing bottle of milk

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Earth First Food Ventures Opens $10M Funding Round for Precision Fermented Dairy via Tokenization

Venture capital platform Earth First Food Ventures (EFFV) has launched a $10 million Series A funding round via tokenization. The investment will expand EFFV’s portfolio in the alt-dairy sector, launch a $50 million fund dedicated to precision fermentation, and support team growth. The innovative fund is listed on Securitize, the leading platform for tokenizing real-world assets on a blockchain, to make investment opportunities in disruptive food technologies and alternative proteins more accessible and streamlined. Brian Ruszczyk, co-founder and CEO of the firm, shares: “We are excited to announce the launch of our Series A round on the Securitize platform. This step helps us become a leader in the scaling of ‘Dairy without the Cow’ in collaboration with global strategic partners. “The traditional dairy industry is …

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Friends of the Earth Discuss Who Funds the Most Environmentally Damaging Sectors

Monique Mikhail, Senior Program Manager, Climate and Agriculture Finance Program, and Kelly McNamara, Senior Research and Policy Analyst, at Friends of the Earth join CEO of VegTech Invest, Elysabeth Alfano, on The Plantbased Business Hour to reveal some shocking environmental statistics from the banking industry’s funding of animal agriculture. Specifically, they discuss: What prompted the Bull in the Climate Shop report? How was the study conducted? What were the results? Why would the banks put themselves at this kind of risk? What has been done with the results? Has there been any reaction from the banking industry? From a societal perspective, can the banks stop funding this industry? Is there any kind of mandate to continue to fund them? What are the next steps? Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/friends-of-the-earth-discuss-who-funds/id1512473843?i=1000664723594  Below is a highlight clip …

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Plant-Ex Ingredients

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Plant-Ex Ingredients Secures £9M Investment to Drive International Expansion

Plant-Ex Ingredients, a UK producer of natural plant-derived flavours, colours, and extracts, has secured £9 million in funding from major investor BGF. The minority investment will help Plant-Ex to expand internationally, with a focus on the US market. The company established a division in Chicago earlier this year, and also has sites in Poland and Turkey. Within the last month, Plant-Ex has opened a new facility in Bristol with twice the capacity of its previous site; this should allow for further growth within the UK and internationally. The company’s products are already available in over 50 countries worldwide. Plant-Ex has also announced the appointment of Susan Barratt as non-executive chair. Barrett is highly experienced in the food and consumer goods industry, having previously held roles …

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Sperri plant-based meal replacement beverage

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Plant-Based Meal Replacement Brand Sperri to Expand Into the US Following New Investment

Sperri, a Canadian brand of organic and allergen-free plant-based meal replacement beverages, has announced a new investment. Led by Nàdarra Ventures and supported by Invest Nova Scotia, the funding will allow Sperri to expand into the US and develop new products. Sperri was co-founded by Gregg Curwin, President and CEO of nutrition company Novagevity, and Dr. Mary Lynch, a physician and pain management specialist. Lynch was inspired to develop the beverages after noticing that many of her patients struggled to tolerate existing meal replacements due to ingredients such as dairy, gluten, refined sugars, and soy protein. To come up with a solution, Lynch partnered with Curwin, a seasoned entrepreneur. Their collaboration resulted in the development of Sperri, which is said to be Canada’s first organic …

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Formo completes Series B funding round

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Formo Raises $61M, Launches Fermented Cheese Alternatives at 2,000+ Stores

Formo, a German producer of fermented cheese alternatives, has raised $61 million in a Series B funding round. The round saw participation from existing investors such as Foodlabs, EQT Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Happiness Capital, Elevat3 Capital, and Grazia Capital. New investors, including Sazaby League, Seven Ventures, Woodline Partners, The Nature Conservancy, and REWE Group, also took part. Formo will use the funding to achieve several objectives, including expanding internationally, diversifying its product range, driving revenue growth, and achieving net profitability by 2027. The company is also working to accelerate the commercialisation of animal-free casein, which will enable the production of hard cheeses. Product launches Additionally, Formo has announced that two of its cheese alternatives — Frischhain and Camembritz — are now available at over 2000 …

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nvestment Climate Podcast

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Investment Climate Podcast: George Zheleznyi of Cultimate Foods – How to get funded in 2024

In this podcast series, co-produced by vegconomist, Alex Shandrovsky interviews investors about benchmarks for funding Alt Proteins in 2024 and uncovers the investment playbooks of successful Climate Tech CEOs and Leading VCs. Podcast Host Alex Shandrovksy is a strategic advisor to numerous global food tech accelerators and companies, including alternative proteins and cellular agriculture leaders. His focus is on investor relations and post-raise scale for agrifood tech companies. Episode 12: George Zheleznyi of Cultimate In this episode, Alex talks to George, co-founder and CEO of Cultimate Foods, a Berlin based biotechnology startup developing a cultivated fat ingredient for plant based meat aiming to replicate the taste and texture of traditional animal meat. George discusses the importance of having strong Letters of Intent (LOIs), supported by …

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GALY, a plant-cell culture startup based in Brazil and Boston, USA, has raised $33 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing round to advance its proprietary platform for cultivated cotton from lab to pre-industrial scale.

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GALY Raises $33M From Bill Gates’ BEV, H&M, and Inditex to Advance Climate-Resilient Cultivated Cotton

GALY, a plant-cell culture startup based in Brazil and Boston, USA, has raised $33 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing round to advance its proprietary platform for cultivated cotton from lab to pre-industrial scale. Additionally, the funds will support expanding R&D efforts to improve the quality of “GALY Cotton” and develop other sustainable alternatives to traditional crop-derived commodities. The funding round was led by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), with participation from two fashion giants, H&M Group and Inditex. Other participants included Indorama Ventures, Endeavor Scale-up Ventures, and Unreasonable. Previous investors Material Impact, John Doerr’s family office (Eighty Eighty Group), Artesian, BRINC, and Reaction Global also backed the sustainable cotton, bringing GALY’s raised capital to $65 million. Luciano Bueno, founder and CEO of GALY, shared, …

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Employees breaking the ground of the new faba and pea facility

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Swedish Cooperative Lantmännen Invests SEK 1.2 Billion in New Pea & Faba Protein Facility

Swedish cooperative Lantmännen announces a SEK 1.2 billion (€105M) investment in a new plant-based protein facility in Lidköping, Sweden. Expected to be operational by the first half of 2027, the new plant will produce 7,000 tonnes of pea and faba protein isolates annually for plant-based foods, from meat and dairy alternatives to sports drinks, gluten-free pasta and bakery products. The plant will create approximately 30 new jobs directly, plus hundreds of additional opportunities during the plant’s construction phase. Magnus Kagevik, Group President and CEO of Lantmännen, shares, “We need to produce more food to supply the world’s growing population, and there is a global and long-term increasing demand for plant-based proteins as a food ingredient. The investment (…) will strengthen the entire value chain from …

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Rice pea protein powder

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Nandi Proteins Secures £500,000 for Egg White Replacer for “Undesirable Ingredients”

Food science innovator Nandi Proteins has secured over £500,000 in funding through a convertible loan from investors including Nesta, the UK’s social innovation agency, and Scottish Enterprise. The new capital will support the development of the company’s egg white replacer for gluten-free bakery and mycoprotein alternatives, which has attracted “strong interest” from manufacturers. Nesta Impact Investments (NII), Nesta’s investment arm, has pledged to support an upcoming equity raise with an additional £1 million to complete the target of £1.5 million. The VC Frontier IP holds a 19.7% equity stake in Nandi Proteins. CEO David Flower shared, “We are delighted with this funding from Nesta and Scottish Enterprise and Nesta’s commitment to invest in our equity raise. It provides further validation for our innovative food ingredient …

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Zur Mühlen Gruppe makes first alt protein investment

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Leading Sausage Producer Zur Mühlen Gruppe Makes Its First Alt Protein Investment in Fermentation Startup Nosh.bio

Zur Mühlen Gruppe (ZMG), a leading German producer of sausages and plant-based alternatives, has made its first ever investment in an alternative protein startup. The company has provided funding to Berlin-based Nosh.bio, which produces nutrient-rich products using fermentation technology and koji mushrooms. The resulting proteins can be used to make meat and fish alternatives, sauces, confectionery, pet food, and more. Following the investment, ZMG will use koji mushrooms to produce a new range of protein-rich meat-free products. The first to be developed are “koji strips”, which can be fried or used in salads. While this is ZMG’s first alt protein investment, the company has been expanding its presence in the plant-based sector for several years under the brand names Gutfried, Vevia 4 You, and Es …

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Investment Climate Podcast: Simo Ellilä of Enifer – How to get funded in 2024

In this podcast series, co-produced by vegconomist, Alex Shandrovsky interviews investors about benchmarks for funding Alt Proteins in 2024 and uncovers the investment playbooks of successful Climate Tech CEOs and Leading VCs. Podcast Host Alex Shandrovksy is a strategic advisor to numerous global food tech accelerators and companies, including alternative proteins and cellular agriculture leaders. His focus is on investor relations and post-raise scale for agrifood tech companies. Episode 12: Enifer: Simo Ellilä of Enifer In this episode, Alex talks to Simo Ellilä, CEO and co-founder of Enifer, a biotech startup in Finland that produces sustainable microprotein through the fermentation of industrial byproducts. Simon discusses the strategic approach Enifer took to raise their current rounds and a few key strategies that helped them secure funds …

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Ivy Farm and Finnebrogue partner to bring cultivated Wagyu beef to the UK  

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“Admirable and Important” – Meatly & Ivy Farm Respond to UK’s New Alternative Protein Innovation Centre

This morning saw the UK’s announcement of the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (Napic), spearheaded by the University of Leeds, with a total investment of £38 million to explore innovations in plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-derived foods. Professor Anwesha Sarkar, project leader for NAPIC and director of research and innovation at the University of Leeds’ School of Food Science and Nutrition, comments: “A phased transition towards low-emission alternative proteins which have a reduced reliance on animal agriculture is imperative to deliver sustainability and protein equity for one and all. “NAPIC will provide a robust and sustainable platform for open innovation and responsible data exchange and collaboration with partners from industry, regulators, academic partners and policymakers that mitigates the risks associated with this emerging sector, and also addresses …

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New School Foods salmon

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New School Foods Lands $6M from IKEA and Global Investors, Opens Facility to Scale Plant-Based Salmon

New School Foods has announced the completion of an additional $6 million in seed funding, bringing the company’s total raised capital to $18 million. This latest funding round includes investments from global entities such as Inter IKEA Group, Good Startup, NewTree Capital, and Hatch. IKEA, which generates $2.5 billion in annual food sales, with seafood being its second-largest category after meatballs, has set ambitious plant-based targets for its restaurants. By 2025, IKEA aims to ensure that 50% of its main meals offered in restaurants are plant-based, 80% are non-red meat, and 80% of all packaged food is plant-based. Additionally, the company seeks to have 80% of its main meals adhere to the IKEA Balanced Meal norm for healthier options. Commenting on the investment, Robert Carleke, …

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UK Government Invests £15M to Establish Alternative Protein Innovation Centre With Global Reach

Two UK government funding bodies — the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Innovate UK — have announced a £15 million investment into a new innovation centre for plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-derived foods. The National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC), which will be hosted at the University of Leeds, will also receive £23 million of investment from public and private sector partners. The centre will be co-led with the James Hutton Institute, the University of Sheffield, and Imperial College London. At NAPIC, over 30 interdisciplinary researchers and 120 international partners will develop new alternative protein products and ingredients, along with investigating how they can be incorporated into consumers’ diets. Working with businesses, academia, regulators, and investors, the researchers will focus on four key …

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Beyond and Oatly stocks

Philipp Wolf on Canva Pro

Between Hype and Reality: Oatly and Beyond Meat as a Reflection of the Industry?

The food sector is in the midst of radical change, driven by innovations in alternative proteins, AgTech and sustainable food production. While ‘new food’ companies have grown strongly in recent years, doubts are now emerging about their future viability, which are manifested in a much more difficult financing environment. To better understand this situation, it helps to take a look at listed companies such as Oatly and Beyond Meat, but also to look at the broader global and national financing situation. Oatly and Beyond Meat: the case of the pioneer shares Oatly and Beyond Meat were once at the forefront of the alternative protein revolution. Beyond Meat (BYND) went public in 2019 and quickly became a favourite of investors betting on the plant-based meat market. …

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Perfect Day's animal-free whey protein in whipped cream.

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Pharmaceutical Giant Zydus & Perfect Day Partner to Make India an Animal-Free Protein Hub

Pharmaceutical giant Zydus Lifesciences has announced an agreement to acquire a 50% stake in Sterling Biotech, a manufacturing company based in Mumbai, purchased by the Californian biotech Perfect Day from bankruptcy for $78 million in 2022. Both Zydus and Perfect Day will have equal representation on Sterling Biotech’s Board post-transaction. It is worth highlighting that India is the world’s largest milk producer, contributing 25% of global milk production. According to Zydus Lifesciences, the joint venture aims to make India a “bright spot” in the global supply chain of sustainable proteins to reduce the environmental impact of food production and meet the growing demand for ethically sourced nutrition. The 50:50 joint venture will combine Zydus’ manufacturing strength with Perfect Day’s advanced technology in precision fermentation to establish a …

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