In this podcast series, Alex Shandrovsky interviews investors about benchmarks for funding Alt Proteins in 2025 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. This podcast is syndicated through our media partners; Foodtech Weekly and Vegconomist.
Episode 28: Vivici
In this episode, I sat down with Stephan van Sint Fiet, CEO of Vivici, for a deep dive into what it takes to bring precision-fermented dairy proteins to market at scale. Stephan shares how Vivici navigated regulatory approval with a “no questions” GRAS letter from the FDA, tackled negative gross margins during early scale-up, and secured a €34M raise led by Dutch pension fund PGGM and InvestNL. We explore why they’re starting with whey protein, their strategic decision to stay B2B (not launch a brand), and how they structured commercial agreements to build long-term customer trust—all while laying the groundwork for price parity with conventional dairy.
Key Facts Vivici:
- Goal: To make the promise of dairy protein from precision fermentation a commercial reality.
- Recently raised €34M led by a Dutch pension fund (PGGM) and InvestNL.
Alex’s Top Findings:
- Market Entry Strategy: Focus on Premium Whey Protein Segment. Vivici is initially targeting the premium whey protein isolate market (not the commodity whey market). “We compete against the high-quality whey protein isolates that trade for 18 to $25 per kilogram.”
- Initial Volumes at Suboptimal Gross Margins Are Part of the Plan. Vivici accepts that early batches will have negative gross margins until scaling improves unit economics. “At the beginning, there is a value of death that you have to cross…once you scale that to more interesting volumes, you immediately become gross margin positive.”
- Fundraising Strategy: Focus on Experienced Partners and Scaling Proof. Vivici raised €34M led by a Dutch pension fund (PGGM) and InvestNL, after demonstrating successful scale-up to 75,000L. “We had fully scaled the process…10 liters, 1500 liters, 15,000 liters, 75,000 liters.”
Link to Apple Podcast here.
Catch the full podcast series here.
