Bolder Foods, a Belgian food tech startup specializing in alternative dairy ingredients, has announced that it has shut down. In a post shared via LinkedIn, co-founder and CEO Ilana Taub confirmed the closure, explaining that the company had been unable to secure the necessary funding to continue operations.
“The world needs more bold climate-positive solutions”
Despite its innovative approach and a promising team, Bolder Foods was unable to meet its financial targets. “We didn’t close the round we needed,” Taub wrote, reflecting on the company’s inability to raise the capital required to continue its development.
Founded with the goal of creating sustainable solutions for the dairy industry, Bolder Foods had focused on developing ingredients for plant-based cheese using submerged biomass fermentation. The company’s flagship product, MycoVeg, was a mycelium-based ingredient designed to create creamy and elastic cheese alternatives with umami flavors.
The company had been exploring the potential of mycelium in the food tech space since 2021, believing the organism was underutilized in the production of dairy alternatives. MycoVeg was presented as a way to deliver creamy, buttery textures and “punchy cheesy” flavors in plant-based cheese. It was marketed as a solution that could reduce the environmental footprint of dairy production by replacing conventional ingredients with fermented mycelium and vegetable substrates.
In the months leading up to its closure, Bolder Foods had also presented its developments at events such as one hosted by Givaudan, where the company showcased mycoprotein cheese prototypes to potential investors and industry professionals. However, despite having strong intellectual property, a skilled team, and committed investors, the company ultimately failed to secure the funding needed to take the next steps.
Reflections on the journey
Taub expressed gratitude for the journey, acknowledging the talented team and the partnerships that had been formed. “We built the best team I’ve ever worked with,” she wrote, tagging key individuals such as Stacey Skaalure, PhD, Basile Meulenyzer, Ophelia Gevaert, and Michael Minch-Dixon.
In reflecting on the closure, Taub noted the broader impact of the loss. “The world needs more bold climate-positive solutions,” she wrote, lamenting that the company’s vision for sustainable food production would not come to fruition through Bolder Foods.
