French biotech Standing Ovation has secured €3 million in funding from the French government and Bpifrance for its CASPEX project: the production at scale of precision fermentation-derived caseins for novel dairy products.
“This financing also marks the commitment of public authorities to preparing the food of the future”
The French government is supporting Standing Ovation with €2 million over 20 months as part of the “Agri-food Resilience and Capacity” call for projects run by the national investment plan France 2030, which funds innovations for healthy, sustainable, and traceable food. 60% of the funding will be a grant to propel the startup’s scaling goals.
The French food tech also obtained a €1 million loan from Bpifrance, known as the Invest EU Green Investment Loan, to fuel its precision fermentation platform further.
Romain Chayot, CEO and co-founder of Standing Ovation, comments: “Bpifrance’s strong support is helping us to drive the industrial deployment of the unique process developed by Standing Ovation, an important step before the upcoming commercialization of our ingredients. This financing also marks the commitment of public authorities to preparing the food of the future and ensuring food sovereignty.”
Reaching industrial scale
The CASPEX project will focus on developing a purification line to extract caseins from the fermentation process.
As explained by the biotech, purification is crucial in the industrialization process as it helps improve the efficiency of the platform, enhances the effectiveness of production tools used in earlier stages, and subsequently reduces the downtime of equipment and teams. As a result, it leads to faster production and reduces associated costs.
In addition, Standing Ovation claims that the project will serve as a prototype or model for a production unit, ensuring the company’s technological advantage.
By reaching the industrial scale, the French startup positions itself as a key player in precision fermentation, allowing it to supply functional casein ingredients for novel dairy products.
Sustainable dairy ingredients
Created in 2020 and based in Paris, Standing Ovation has developed a patented process for producing non-animal caseins. These proteins are said to offer identical nutrition but have less environmental impact than animal caseins.
Standing Ovation secured €12 million in 2022 to develop its platform. The multinational cheese leader Bel Group, famous for iconic brands The Laughing Cow, Babybel, and Boursin, acquired an equity stake in the young biotech and partnered with the startup to produce animal-free cheese.
Standing Ovation is a French Tech 2030 award winner and a Precision Fermentation Alliance (PFA) and Food Fermentation Europe (FFE) member.
“Standing Ovation’s innovative approach enables us to contribute to the food transition while significantly reducing the environmental impact of the dairy ingredients industry,” Chayot adds.
