Farmless raises €4.8M to produce functional proteins for the F&B industry

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Farmless Raises €4.8M to Develop Fermented Proteins for the Most Sustainable Meat, Dairy, and Egg Alternatives

Dutch fermentation startup Farmless announced that it has raised €4.8 million to produce functional proteins for the F&B industry without relying on the climate, exploiting animals, or using the land.  The company’s proteins are said to provide a complete amino acid profile, competing with the nutritional value of beef. They suit multiple applications, including meat, dairy, and egg alternatives, said the company in a statement. The seed round was co-led by World Fund and Vorwerk Ventures, with participation from previous investor Revent. With new funds, Farmless will build a pilot brewery in Amsterdam, further develop its fermentation platform, and continue the regulatory approval process for novel foods. Adnan Oner, founder and CEO of Farmless, commented: “If we unlock the protein producing powers of the microbial kingdoms …

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Clever Carnivore has raised $7 million in seed round funding to expand and scale its operations.

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Clever Carnivore Secures $7M to Expand its “Astoundingly” Low-Cost Cultivated Pork Production

Chicago’s first cultivated meat company, Clever Carnivore, has raised $7 million in seed round funding to expand and scale its operations. The company has developed a platform to cultivate pork at low costs. Led by former Tyson Foods executive Russell Thomas, VP of product development, Clever Carnivore has created a prototype, the Clever Bratwurst, that it plans to unveil in early 2024. The biotech’s expansion plans include relocating its inaugural lab operations in Lincoln Park to a larger nearby facility with a 500 L bioreactor capacity and space for a test kitchen. “We’ve been tracking and investing across the global cultivated meat sector since the first such company launched eight years ago, and we haven’t seen anyone come remotely close to Clever Carnivore’s astoundingly low current …

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Liberation Labs facility indiana

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Agronomics Secures $25M USDA Backing for Liberation Labs Biomanufacturing Facility

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has granted a $25 million loan guarantee to support Agronomics, a leading cellular agriculture and cultivated meat investment firm, in the completion of a large-scale biomanufacturing facility in Indiana.  Allocated for the finalization of Liberation Labs’ 600,000-liter bio-protein facility, the funding will support a resolution to the industry’s fermentation production capacity deficit. With commercial production scheduled to begin Q1 2025, the facility aims to efficiently produce novel proteins, including those that replicate the characteristics of egg and dairy proteins. Executive Director of Agronomics, Jim Mellon, expressed optimism about Liberation Labs’ cutting-edge fermentation infrastructure, stating, “Liberation Labs is developing state-of-the-art purpose-built fermentation infrastructure which will transform the existing fermentation capacity and help build a future in which precision fermentation …

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BioFluff plant-based fur

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BioFluff Secures $2.5M in Seed Funding for Plant-Based Fur Alternatives

BioFluff, a biomaterials startup describing itself as the first fully plant-based fur alternative, has successfully closed its seed funding round, securing $2.5 million from leading venture capital firms, spearheaded by agrifood tech investor Astanor Ventures. Astanor Ventures has invested in over 45 agrifood companies globally, including plant-based businesses MicroHarvest, Wicked Kitchen, and Umiami. This funding marks a significant milestone for BioFluff, following a pre-seed round of $0.5 million in 2022, led by SOSV, PDS Limited & Joyance Partners. “We were impressed by the passion and determination of the founding team. Biofluff has a unique offering for the luxury industry, fashion, and textiles, which is in full alignment with the Astanor mission of a more regenerative economy,” stated Christina Ulardic, a partner at Astanor Ventures. BioFluff, …

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Ripple Foods half & half

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Ripple Foods Raises $49 Million in Latest Funding Round

According to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing, alt-dairy producer Ripple Foods has raised $49 million in funding, as first reported by Forbes. Founded in 2014, Ripple Food uses protein from sustainably produced yellow peas, claiming to use significantly less water than dairy and other dairy alternatives. The company’s product lineup includes vegan ice cream, plant-based milk, kids’ milk, protein shakes, and dairy-free half and half, all made from pea protein. In 2021, the company announced a $60 million Series E funding round, exceeding its capital raise goals, with plans to accelerate innovation and growth across product categories and expand into new channels and global markets. The funding round seems to have paid off, with the company extending its product lineups with the launch of its Oatmilk + Protein milk last …

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Rügenwalder Mühle

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Pfeifer & Langen Acquires Majority Stake in Rügenwalder Mühle Ahead of Future Plant-Based Growth

Rügenwalder Mühle, the German family company which famously began as an animal-based sausage producer and went on to become the German market leader for plant-based meat products, has sold a majority stake to the holding company Pfeifer & Langen IHKG, which also owns stakes in vegan companies Vbites and endori. Based in Cologne, Pfeifer & Langen IHKG is an in-family-owned food company whose historical core is the sugar manufacturer Pfeifer & Langen. Its subsidiaries include Intersnack, a manufacturer of snacks that owns the British household name KP Snacks. Pfeifer & Langen acquired a 25.1% minority stake in Heather Mills’ Vbites in 2021, allowing the company to significantly expand capacity at its factory in Peterlee, England. The multi-million pound investment was said to have created hundreds …

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German biotech Quazy Foods raises €800K for microalge ingredients.

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Quazy Foods Raises €800K to Revolutionize Plant-Based Food with Microalgae Ingredients

Quazy Foods, a Berlin-based biotech startup, has announced an €800K pre-seed funding raise to grow microalgae and develop functional ingredients for plant-based foods and other applications. ProVeg International, Antler, and Sprout & About Ventures led the round, with additional investment from business angels. In addition to this newly raised capital, Quazy Foods is officially co-funded by the European Union. With the new funds, Quazy Foods will expand to pilot-stage production and develop the first samples of its microalgae ingredient. Additionally, the startup has announced that it will make key strategic hires for its next growth phase.  Berenike Zimmer, co-founder of Quazy Foods, shared, “Microalgae combine exceptional nutritional profiles with outstanding functional properties, which predestines them as a powerful renewable resource of the future. With Quazy …

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Solar Foods raises €8M in oversubscribed funding round

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Air Protein Producer Solar Foods Raises €8M in Oversubscribed Funding Round

Finland’s Solar Foods, a company developing “food out of thin air”, has raised €8 million in an oversubscribed funding round. The round was conducted via Finnish investment organiser Springvest Oyj, and is the largest to ever take place on the platform. Registration was initially planned to be open until November 10, but the round reached capacity almost two weeks early following “overwhelming demand” from investors. Solar Foods will use the funding to ramp up production at its first commercial-scale facility, Factory 01, and commercialise Solein (the company’s protein) in food products. Operations at the facility are expected to begin in the first half of next year. Solar Foods produces protein by feeding microorganisms with carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen from the air; the hydrogen and …

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German company Nordzucker AG announces a €100 million investment for developing plant-proteins.

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Germany’s Nordzucker Commits Over €100M to Expand Into the Plant-Protein Market

German company Nordzucker AG, one of the world’s leading sugar companies, announces that it will invest €100 million over the next few years to develop a new business segment: plant proteins. As part of the expansion, Nordzucker AG will install a plant-based protein processing plant at the company’s site in Groß Munzel, Lower Saxony. Construction will begin in the fall of 2024 and be completed by mid-2026. According to the company, the plant will create around 60 additional jobs. “Plant-based nutrition will play an increasingly important role in the future. The market is growing rapidly. With plant-based proteins, we see a great opportunity to participate in this future market,” says Lars Gorissen, CEO of Nordzucker AG. “We are supplementing our portfolio with a product that fits in …

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Oatly chocolate milk

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Oatly Stock Surges Following Partnership Announcement with Insomnia Cookies

Oatly Group AB (Nasdaq: OTLY), the “world’s largest oat drink company,” known for its witty marketing campaigns, has announced a new collaboration in the US with Insomnia Cookies. Present at all 250+ locations across North America, Oatly’s 11oz Original and Chocolate Oatmilks are now featured alongside Insomnia Cookies’ assortment of signature warm cookies, desserts, and ice creams. Stock surge follows announcement Following a steady decline since mid 2021, Oatly’s stock surged by well over 30% after the announcement of the new partnership and has since leveled out. The company has been shifting toward an “asset-light supply chain strategy” in an effort to boost profitability and has stated that it is on track to post profits this year. Part of this strategy has included transferring plant …

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Willicroft Original Better, a new plant-based butter

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Willicroft Launches Crowdfunding Campaign for New Clean-Label Vegan Butter Made with Beans and Fermentation

Dutch company Willicroft, Europe’s first plant-based cheese brand to achieve B-Corp certification, announces the launch of a crowdfunding campaign to support the release of its latest development at retail and food service in 2024: Willicroft Original Better, a vegan butter made using beans and fermentation. Willicroft aims to raise €350,000 through a convertible loan agreement (CLA) via Seedblink. Individuals or investors will have two options to convert the loans into equity shares in the company: a valuation cap of €7.5 million or a 20% discount. As the company explains, the likely conversion date of the CLA is set for Willicroft’s Series A in early 2025.  The campaign’s goal is €475,000; however, Willicroft already has €125,000 committed offline by existing investors.  Regarding returns, the company believes it is well-positioned …

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LMI_Facility Lovingly Made

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Canada’s Protein Powered Farms Acquires Meatless Farms Subsidiary Lovingly Made Ingredients

Protein Powered Farms, the owner and operator of Canada’s largest plant protein extraction facility, has announced the acquisition of Lovingly Made Ingredients, a subsidiary of well-known UK plant-based meat brand Meatless Farm.  Lovingly Made Ingredients operates an extrusion facility for plant-based products in Calgary, Alberta. Constructed by Meatless Farms in 2021 to capture the North American plant-based meat market, it is said to be Canada’s largest extrusion facility. In a separate acquisition move, Meatless Farms was famously taken over by VFC this summer after facing bankruptcy. Impressively, the company returned to business almost immediately and its products were swiftly relisted at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Ocado.  Shannon Hood-Niefer, CTO of Lovingly Made Ingredients, said, “I am really excited about this acquisition. I have spent over 15 …

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Purezza announces merger with La Fauxmagerie

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Purezza Merges With La Fauxmagerie to “Combine the UK’s Best Plant-Based Restaurant & Cheese Brand”

British plant-based pizza chain Purezza has announced a merger with female-led artisan vegan cheese producer La Fauxmagerie, acquiring a majority stake in the company. Following the merger, the companies will expand their collaborations with the aim of “creating sustainable plant–based products and menus which appeal to all, regardless of dietary requirements”. Purezza says the merger will support its ethos of sourcing high-quality ingredients from local artisans. The chain currently has three locations in Brighton, Camden, and Manchester. The news comes just a few months after Purezza announced that its Stracciazza cheese alternative would be launching on vegan pizzas at all Everyman Cinemas locations UK-wide. Purezza opened a dedicated manufacturing facility for its cheeses in 2021, after receiving significant demand from other food service providers. ’We’re …

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Monde Nissim CEO Provides Financial Support to Quorn from Family Fortune, Confident Growth Will Return

Henry Soesanto, CEO and major shareholder of Monde Nissim Corp., has announced he is to provide financial support for its alternative meat company Quorn via MNSG Holdings, a family business.  In April, Monde Nissin took an impairment charge of over $350 million on Quorn (acquired in 2015) due to the plant-based industry’s headwinds in the UK and globally. Now, Soesanto has pledged to backstop new impairment losses by backing the Quorn with his family’s fortune for the next ten years. The meat-free market is encountering challenges, due to macroeconomic conditions affecting Europe and the USA. However, it is reasonable to assume that growth will come back, he told Inquire.Net.  The news comes only months after Marlow Foods, the parent company of Quorn, launched its ingredients …

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Mans Ullerstam. © Kale United

Kale United Aims to Raise 12M SEK in Preparation for IPO

Leading Nordic plant-based investor Kale United has started a new funding round with the goal of raising 12 million SEK (€1.03 million). The round will be active until December 1, with a third of shares already booked. It comes as Kale United prepares for an IPO in Q2 2025. Some of the capital raised will be used to launch a fund for sustainable investments, which will cater to large institutional investors. The fund will also provide capital to Kale United’s portfolio companies, increasing the investor’s assets under management by 150 million SEK (€12.9 million). Following the raise, Kale United plans to continue investing in both new and existing portfolio companies. The investor says it foresees high growth for its subsidiary, Kale Foods, which distributes its …

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French startup Nūmi (previously MUMilk ), a biotech pioneering the production of cell-cultured breast milk, secured €3 million in pre-seed funding .

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Cow’s Milk Alternative for Infants: Nūmi Raises €3M to Develop Cell-Cultivated Breast Milk

French startup Nūmi (previously MUMilk), a biotech pioneering the production of cell-cultured breast milk, announces it has raised €3 million in pre-seed funding from a group of investors including Heartcore Capital, HCVC, Financière Saint-James, Kima Ventures, and Kost Capital. The new capital will support the expansion of the company’s scientific teams, facilitate its next phase of R&D, and progress toward marketing the company and its products. Nūmi, setting out to revolutionize the infant nutrition industry, states that this achievement represents a significant milestone in furthering its mission to redefine infant health by providing an alternative to cow’s milk for women unable or unwilling to breastfeed. “I am extremely proud to conclude this first round of financing, which marks a crucial stage in our development for …

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What Happened to the Beyond Meat and Oatly Stocks?

Dr. Sasha Goodman, Chief Investment Officer of VegTech Invest, joins Elysabeth Alfano, CEO of VegTech Invest to discuss what has happened to the Beyond Meat and Oatly Stocks and, conversely, the large landscape of Plant-based Innovation companies in the public markets that are thriving. Think that Beyond Meat and Oatly are the only publicly traded plant-based innovation companies? Think again. Learn about the depth of the sector in this special episode of the Plantbased Business Hour, taken from the Upside & Impact: Investing for Change podcast, now also on the New York Stock Exchange’s platform, ETFCentral.com. Specifically, they discuss What other companies are publicly traded that are focusing on plant-based innovation? What common misconceptions exist about the alt protein sector? What is driving food systems innovation and is …

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Italy’s Dreamfarm Raises €5M for “Groundbreaking” Almond-Based Mozzarella

Italian plant-based cheese startup Dreamfarm has secured €5 million in investment from accomplished food industry entrepreneurs Giampaolo Cagnin and Francesco Mutti. The funding comes after the company achieved a “groundbreaking milestone” by developing a unique almond-based mozzarella alternative. Like conventional dairy mozzarella, the plant-based cheese is sold as a ball suspended in liquid. According to Dreamfarm, it is the first plant-based mozzarella to ever achieve government-certified liquid status. The product also contains less than 1% saturated fat, far lower than conventional mozzarella and other plant-based alternatives. It is made from Italian almonds and has received a Nutriscore of A, the highest possible rating. New facility and expansion Some of the funding has already been used to establish a production facility in Sala Baganza, equipped with …

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Upside & Impact: Investing for Change Podcast Launches on ETF Central.com

VegTech™ Invest announces that The Upside & Impact: Investing For Change podcast, hosted by CEO Elysabeth Alfano, is now available on ETFCentral.com, a destination website and platform for ETF investors and practitioners operated by Trackinsight and the New York Stock Exchange. The podcast airs twice monthly, every other Wednesday, and is produced by VegTech™ Invest, a Registered Investment Advisor focused on investing in public companies innovating for sustainable food systems transformation throughout the supply chain. On the podcast, Elysabeth dives deep with leaders in the impact investing space to uncover the potential financial upside and long-term impact of investing in sustainable sectors like alternative energy, transportation, building materials, biodiversity and natural-based solutions, and sustainable food systems transformation. Topics will range from protecting biodiversity and natural …

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Tupu Raises $3.2M for Highly Efficient Indoor Mushroom Production

German agtech company Tupu has raised $3.2 million in a seed funding round led by FoodLabs and Zubi Capital, with participation from Clear Current Capital, FoodHack, IT-Farm, CoastCap, and various angel investors. Tupu is working to revolutionise mushroom production through a decentralised farming system that grows a range of organic gourmet mushrooms directly in cities. Since November of last year, the company has been offering fresh, sustainable, and competitively-priced mushrooms to a range of local customers, from wholesalers to renowned chefs. The mushrooms are especially popular for creating vegan dishes; for example, Sebastian Frank, the head chef and owner of two-starred Michelin restaurant Horváth, uses Tupu’s King Oyster mushroom for his vegan foie gras. Tupu already supplies over three tonnes of mushrooms per month, and …

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