Blue Horizon today announces the completion of seed financing round for Tomorrow Foods, marking its first investment into South America. The funds will allow Tomorrow Foods to accelerate business expansion across the region and additionally, the company reports its plans to open an industrial facility unique to the region this month.
Tomorrow Foods, a fast-growing brand which secured $3 million from local angel investors and biotech companies last September, is to build what the company says is the first plant-based R&D centre on the continent. The facility will include a “powerful and resourceful team with very specific expert knowledge in each area” according to the press release.
Through the new centre, Tomorrow Foods states it will have access to capabilities in extraction, isolation and functionalization, which it says are unique to the region and will allow the company to drive the protein transformation in South America. The facility, whose grand opening is set to take place later in February, will allow for a diversified protein isolates portfolio including peas, chickpeas, mung beans, for the development of healthy and sustainable products.
“Working towards becoming leaders in the plant-based industry”
Agustin Belloso, CEO and Co-founder at Tomorrow Foods, said: “We are determined to use these funds to deepen and accelerate R&D efforts, and to enable a commercial outburst, not only in Argentina, but also across the whole Latin-American region. We are working towards becoming leaders in the plant-based industry, thus becoming strategic partners for F&B players, as they target this ever-growing trend. We are humbled to have been entrusted by our investors with this responsibility.”
Robert Boer, Director at Blue Horizon, comments: “At Blue Horizon we strive to make sustainable protein available for everyone, everywhere. We are therefore very excited to announce our first seed investment in South America. We believe Tomorrow Foods will play a pivotal role in bringing alternative and sustainable proteins to the South American continent. Their R&D Center will enable many local entrepreneurs to develop plant-based consumer brands tailored for the local market. Moreover, Tomorrow Foods will allow them to tell their customers a story embedded in a fully traceable and sustainable supply chain all the way to the local farmers using regenerative agriculture. A true benchmark of how a sustainable food system should work.”