Luyef has received two substantial grants totaling $1.25 million to accelerate cultivated meat's market readiness.

© The Ganesha Lab

Investments & Finance

Chile’s Luyef Receives $1.25M to Develop Nutrients for Cultivated Meat Using Fermentation and Agro By-Products

Luyef (previously Luyef Biotechnologies), a biotech startup focused on cellular agriculture based in Santiago de Chile, has received two substantial grants totaling $1.25 million to accelerate cultivated meat production (detailed information about the grants below). The Ganesha Lab, LATAM’s global biotech scale-up for science and technology-based startups, announced the investment. Kris Blanchard, a biotechnology engineer from the University of Chile, co-founded Luyef in 2020, participating in The Ganesha Lab’s accelerator program in 2022. Luyef is developing technologies to scale cultivated meat production at industrial levels and uses precision fermentation to produce animal proteins. The company is commercializing a bovine myoglobin ingredient (heme) branded as TAMEE (The Authentic Meat-Eating Experience), designed to enhance the taste and color of plant-based and cultivated meat products. According to Pitchbook, other …

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W-Cycle

© W-Cycle

Packaging

W-Cycle and Melhoramentos Develop Freezer-to-Oven Compostable Packaging that Breaks Down in 100 Days

W-Cycle Ltd., an Israeli clean-tech company specializing in sustainable packaging, has entered into a strategic partnership with Brazil’s Melhoramentos to produce compostable food containers using high-performance cellulose fibers and agricultural waste materials. Under the terms of the agreement, valued at a minimum of USD 3.45 million over an initial three-year period, W-Cycle will provide Melhoramentos with its proprietary food-grade packaging formula and consulting services. These resources will enable Melhoramentos to produce high-performance biodegradable packaging using renewable materials. The company will also integrate its own cellulose fibers, sourced from its extensive forestry operations covering more than 80 million square meters. The new packaging will be designed to offer key features like grease resistance, moisture-proofing, and the ability to withstand extreme temperatures. This makes it a viable …

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Fazenda Futuro's plant-based meat

© Fazenda Futuro

Market & Trends

Brazil’s Plant-Based Market on Trajectory to Exceed 2026 Growth Expectations

Plant-based sales are seeing an uptick in Brazil, driven by the need to replace meat and dairy for health and ethical reasons and the push for greater sustainability in the food industry. Figures from Euromonitor‘s database, shared with vegconomist by the Good Food Institute Brasil (GFI Brasil), show that the plant-based market in the country has seen significant growth. In 2023 alone, retail sales of plant-based meat and seafood reached R$1.1 billion, a 38% increase compared to the previous year. Not only did sales increase, but the total volume (in tons) of products sold also grew significantly, with a 22% rise compared to the previous period. Meanwhile, plant-based milk, which is the most successful category in the global market with a 66.8% plant-based market share, showed …

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NotSquares by NotCo

© NotCo

Sweets & Snacks

NotCo Launches Functional NotSquares Snack, Aims to Transform Category With $30M Investment

Chilean food tech company NotCo has expanded its range of functional snacks with NotSquares, a new product containing up to 6 grams of protein per serving. Designed by NotCo’s AI technology, Giuseppe, the snacks are free of sugar and contain a slow-release carbohydrate called Palatinose™. This is said to provide sustained energy without the fatigue and increased appetite sometimes caused by excessive refined sugar consumption. NotSquares also contain Vitamin B6 and chocolate made with 60% cocoa. The launch is part of the consolidation of NotCo’s 2.0 phase, which will see the company invest over $30 million in the growth of the snack category over the next three years. This strategy aims to go beyond creating plant-based versions of existing products, transforming stagnant food categories with …

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Concepta Ingredients

© Concepta Ingredients

Fairs & Events

Concepta Ingredients to Present Premium Proteins Derived From Sesame at PBWE Europe

Brazil’s Concepta Ingredients, a division of Grupo Sabará specializing in natural food and beverage solutions, has announced its attendance at this year’s Plant Based World Expo Europe. Taking place in London today (November 13) and tomorrow, PBWE Europe brings together numerous important players in the plant-based industry, including retailers, service professionals, and investors. At this year’s event, Concepta Ingredients will showcase its Arboreto Premium Protein range. One of the highlights of the range is PRO 1000G, a protein asset derived from the extraction process of sesame oil. The product is said to be rich in protein, fiber, and calcium, and a source of essential amino acids. The range also includes PRO 1000GB, which combines sesame with the Amazonian ingredient babaçu. According to Concepta Ingredients, the …

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Amazon Rainforest in Anavilhanas National Park, Amazonas - Brazil

© Marcio-Isensee-e-Sa. - stock.adobe.com

Startups, Accelerators & Incubators

ProVeg International Expands to Brazil With First-Ever Office in South America

  ProVeg International, a food awareness organization aiming to replace 50% of animal products globally with plant-based and cultivated foods by 2040, has expanded its global presence by opening its first office in South America: ProVeg Brazil. Led by journalist Aline Baroni, the Brazilian team will promote plant-forward public policies and work with the Brazilian government to highlight “food systems” as a central theme during the 2025 UN Climate Summit, COP30, which will take place in the Amazonian city of Belém. With this addition, the organization now operates in 14 countries, broadening its reach and influence in promoting the health and environmental benefits of plant-based diets. The Brazil office follows the establishment of ProVeg Portugal earlier this year and offices in Nigeria and Malaysia in 2023. …

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GALY, a plant-cell culture startup based in Brazil and Boston, USA, has raised $33 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing round to advance its proprietary platform for cultivated cotton from lab to pre-industrial scale.

© GALY

Investments & Finance

GALY Raises $33M From Bill Gates’ BEV, H&M, and Inditex to Advance Climate-Resilient Cultivated Cotton

GALY, a plant-cell culture startup based in Brazil and Boston, USA, has raised $33 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing round to advance its proprietary platform for cultivated cotton from lab to pre-industrial scale. Additionally, the funds will support expanding R&D efforts to improve the quality of “GALY Cotton” and develop other sustainable alternatives to traditional crop-derived commodities. The funding round was led by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), with participation from two fashion giants, H&M Group and Inditex. Other participants included Indorama Ventures, Endeavor Scale-up Ventures, and Unreasonable. Previous investors Material Impact, John Doerr’s family office (Eighty Eighty Group), Artesian, BRINC, and Reaction Global also backed the sustainable cotton, bringing GALY’s raised capital to $65 million. Luciano Bueno, founder and CEO of GALY, shared, …

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Concepta factory Brazil

© Concepta

Ingredients

Concepta Ingredients Presents the Arboreto Premium Protein Range

Concepta Ingredients – a business unit of the Sabará Group that specializes in providing natural solutions for the food and beverage industry – has recently launched the Arboreto Premium Protein range. The highlight is the plant-based protein active PRO 1000G, which is derived from the extraction process of sesame oil, a plant native to tropical Africa and Asia, introduced to Brazil by the Portuguese in the 16th century. The product has characteristics that make it an excellent nutritional profile, as it is rich in protein, fiber, calcium and a source of essential amino acids. The company is also introducing Arboreto Premium Protein PRO 1000GB, which combines the benefits of sesame, derived from the upcycling process of oil extraction, and babaçu, an ingredient of Amazonian origin …

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Fundación Veg (previously Vegetarianos Hoy) has launched a campaign in the Santiago Metro to encourage a vegan diet during the Fiestas Patrias celebrations.

© Fab Ciraolo

Charity & Campaigns

“Be Like Joaquin Phoenix” Urges Fundación Veg in Campaign Promoting Vegan Diet in Chile

Fundación Veg (previously Vegetarianos Hoy) has launched a campaign in the Santiago Metro to encourage a vegan diet during Chile’s Fiestas Patrias, when traditional dishes made with meat and other animal products are widely consumed. The campaign features an image designed by national artist Fab Ciraolo, showing vegan actor Joaquin Phoenix surrounded by happy, alive farm animals and holding a vegan burger certified by V-Label. According to the non-profit the phrase is a nod to Phoenix’s 2020 Oscar speech promoting veganism. The phrase, “Be like Joaquin and discover the great variety of vegan products that exist today,” leads the campaign to encourage citizens to explore vegan options. A QR code on the panels directs users to the website www.sellovegano.com, offering a comprehensive resource of V-Label-certified …

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André Sabará of Concepta Ingredients

André Sabará ©Concepta Ingredients

Interviews

Concepta Ingredients: “Our Proposal Aims to Mitigate Waste by Reusing the Entire Production Chain and Ensuring Zero Waste Production”

Brazil’s Concepta Ingredients is part of the Sabará Group and specialises in natural and technological solutions developed in accordance with the Bio Abundance Program. Based on innovation and research, the company offers organic and conventional ingredients, with a portfolio of technological inputs from international partners and ingredients from biodiversity to meet the most specific demands of the industries in which it operates. Concepta Ingredients’ new factory, located in Valinhos, in the interior of São Paulo, is strategically located in a region with a strong logistics structure (motorways and airports) and occupies an area of 7,800m², combining the latest in industrial technology, from production to quality control. André Tomazelli Sabará has worked at holding Sabará Group for 16 years and currently holds the position of ESG, …

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NotCo Plant-based Chicken Nuggets

© NotCo

Politics & Law

Chile: New Bill to Define and Label Plant-Based Alternatives as “Simulated Food”

In Chile, a new bill to regulate the food tech industry and establish a statute for fair competition between traditional and plant-based food industries is being considered. The proposed legislation, authored by Representative Harry Jürgensen, aims to protect consumer rights and prevent misleading practices in the food industry. “The proposal establishes a statute for fair competition between animal-origin foods and plant-origin foods when the latter imitates the properties of the former. To this end, it distinguishes between natural and synthetic origin so that all people are clearly aware of the types of foods they are consuming,” says the press release from the Chamber of Deputies. “Simulated food” The bill, which has recently passed through the Agriculture Committee and is now being debated at the Chamber …

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A photo of a pizza slice

© Ergo Bioscience

Ingredients

Ergo Bioscience Creates “Animal Proteins, Without Animals” for the Next Generation of Plant-Based

Ergo Bioscience, recognized in 2022 by FoodBytes! from Rabobank as one of the 15 most disruptive food tech startups worldwide, specializes in developing complex animal proteins such as bovine myoglobin and casein through plant cell culture. Founded in May 2020 with pre-seed investment from CITES, the startup boasts a team of 12 scientists dedicated to innovation and biotechnology to create animal-free ingredients. With biotech research in Wilmington, Delaware, laboratories in Sunchales and Santa Fe, Argentina, and a new subsidiary in Canada, Ergo believes in the potential of plant cells to bring sustainability to the food industry and beyond. Plant cells instead of microbes Ergo has developed a platform called EUKARYA that “programs” plant cells with multiple simultaneous genetic modifications to make them express complete structures …

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Brazil’s Typcal, a startup based Paraná pionering mycoprotein in Latin America, has been selected by the Paraná Anjo Inovador to receive a R$250,000 in funding.

Eduardo Sydney and team © SEI-PR

Fermentation

LATAM’s Mycoprotein Innovator ‘Typcal’ Secures R$250K From Brazilian Government

Brazil’s Typcal, a startup pioneering mycoprotein in Latin America, has been selected by the Paraná Anjo Inovador to receive R$250,000 in funding. A spinoff of Fungi Biotechnology, the startup was founded in 2021 by bioprocess engineer Eduardo Sydney (CTO) and food industry entrepreneur Paulo Ibri (CEO) to leverage biomass fermentation to develop a mycoprotein ingredient for food applications. Typcal was one of the 68 selected in the program’s first call for proposals, which was developed by the regional government through the Secretariat for Innovation, Modernization, and Digital Transformation. According to the announcement, state funding has been crucial in helping the startup navigate the challenging investment landscape and focus on technological development. “The investor is focused on selling and generating revenue and not on developing technology, …

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Vegy sandwich

© Vegy

Gastronomy & Food Service

Chile’s Vegy Seeks Co-Founding Partners to Fuel Growth

Vegan start-up Vegy, founded in 2019 in Pucón, Chile, is seeking investors and co-founding partners to take its business to a new level of accelerated growth. The company, known for its gourmet and healthy dishes, has incorporated recent innovations including fortifying its products with vitamins and minerals. Cristóbal Esparza, the founder behind Vegy, started his entrepreneurial venture with a small vegan restaurant in Pucón. With limited resources and the support of a Sercotec fund, as well as some loans and reused equipment, Esparza formed Vegy’s first team, composed mainly of nutritionists committed to his vision. Despite initial success, the pandemic forced the closure of the Pucón location, leading the company to adapt by creating a website and implementing an online sales and delivery model from …

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NotCo Shakes Up Sports Nutrition with New AI-Powered Less Sweet Protein Drinks

©NotCo Brazil

Products & Launches

NotCo Shakes Up Sports Nutrition with New Zero Sugar Protein Drinks in Funky Flavors

NotCo, Latin America’s fastest-growing plant-based food tech company, known for its NotMilk and NotBurger, continues its portfolio expansion by tapping into the growing market for protein foods and drinks aimed at athletes. Following the launch of NotSnack Protein Bars, a fortified cereal bar that contains caffeine and the sugar substitute palatinose launched less than a year ago, the company has presented “Not Shake Protein,” a range of protein-enriched sports drinks. The new product range offers exclusive flavors such as Banana Pancakes with Cinnamon and Strawberry with Dates, as well as regular options such as chocolate, coffee caramel, and vanilla with coconut. All flavors contain 16g of protein per unit, 3.5g of carbohydrates, vitamins D and B12, and no added sugars. They are also lactose, cholesterol, …

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Future Cow's co-founder Leonardo Vieira.

© Future Cow

Fermentation

Brazil’s First Precision Fermentation Startup Future Cow Prepares to Scale Up Production of Animal-Free Milk

Future Cow, a Brazilian food tech startup founded in 2023 by entrepreneur Leonardo Vieira and food scientist Rosana Goldbeck, aims to revolutionize dairy production with precision fermentation, creating real milk without cows. Considered Brazil’s first cellular agriculture startup using precision fermentation, Future Cow gained momentum through São Paulo’s Antler residency program, securing a $150,000 initial investment. Soon after, in a funding round led by Antler and Big Idea Ventures as part of the first cohort of the New Protein Fund II, it secured R$2 million (around $410,000) to accelerate its fermentation technology. Recently, the startup was selected for the FoodTech World Cup semi-finals, hosted by FoodHack and Givaudan. It has also been selected to participate in CNPEM’s Deeptech Acceleration Program (PACE), a local initiative that aims to boost …

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CEO's Linda Obregon and Karina Zegarra of Peruvian Veef

Linda Obregon and Karina Zegarra © Peruvian Veef

Fundraising

Peruvian Veef Secures $320K in First Funding Round, Aims for Latin American Expansion

Peruvian Veef, a plant-based food startup in South America, has raised $320,000 in its first funding round, led by US-based venture capital investors. This round included contributions from Ahimsa Foundation and Sustainable Food Ventures, along with a non-dilutive government grant from ProInnovate Peru. Founded by Karina Zegarra, with a focus on affordable, locally-made plant-based meat alternatives, the company has developed a range of 11 products inspired by Latin American cuisine, including beef, chicken, cold-cuts, and traditional Peruvian dishes like anticucho and grilled chicken. According to the company, these products are competitively priced at less than half of some imported alternatives. The company has established a significant presence in the local market, with its products available in over 70 stores and leading sales at Peru’s specialty …

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Andre Weinmann NotCo

© Andre Weinmann

People

Andre Weinmann Appointed as President of NotCo Brazil

Article amended to reflect the appointment is Brazil-based and not for Global operations. Chilean food technology company NotCo has announced the appointment of Andre Weinmann as new president of its Brazilian operations. Weinmann brings over 30 years of experience in the retail and consumer goods industry, most recently serving in leadership and strategic roles at major corporations, including Mondelez, one of the world’s largest snack companies, Unilever, Nestle, Purina, and BRF. Weinmann’s appointment comes at a time of significant growth for NotCo. The company aims to achieve break-even in the coming years, and Weinmann is tasked with propelling the company towards this strategic goal. Prior to joining NotCo, Weinmann co-founded KotaKi, a platform connecting manufacturers and wholesalers with smaller retailers. During his tenure, he is …

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NotCo LATAM

© NotCo

Tourism & Travel

NotCo Partners with LATAM Airlines to Offer NotBurger & NotChicken Aboard Domestic Flights

Chilean foodtech company NotCo and LATAM Airlines Group have announced the introduction of NotCo’s plant-based products in the Premium Economy cabin of LATAM’s domestic flights in Chile as part of a menu update. This partnership will see the integration of six unique sandwich options into LATAM’s in-flight service, crafted through a joint effort between the airline’s chefs and NotCo. The menu options, which will vary weekly, feature NotCo’s plant-based products, including NotMila, NotChicken, and NotBurger, in combination with a variety of other ingredients. Max Silva, the country manager of NotCo in Chile, stated, “Getting on board LATAM planes is simply a dream for the company. Bringing the revolution and innovation that so distinguishes us to a company of such magnitude as LATAM makes us feel …

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The Live Green Co. unveils two new functional ingredients from its precision fermentation division: GreenTAGs Human Milk Lipids for infant nutrition and GutRevyv Postbiotics for gut health.

Image courtesy of The Live Green Co.

Fermentation

The Live Green Co. Unveils Yeast-Derived Breast Milk Fat and Gut Health Postbiotic

The Live Green Co. (TLGC), a US food tech company headquartered in Boston since 2022, unveils two active functional ingredients developed with precision fermentation: GreenTAGs —  an analog of human breast milk fat known as OPO — and GutRevyv, a postbiotic for gut health. Human milk fat, mainly containing Triacylglycerols or OPO, plays a crucial role in infant development and health: It benefits nutrient absorption, supports neurodevelopment, boosts immunity, favors gut health, and promotes infant well-being. Yeast-derived, GreenTAGs is said to closely mimic the nutritional profile of this human milk fat providing essential nutrients for infants. The functional ingredient is described as a game-changing alternative to the commonly used vegetable oils in infant formulas, capable of bridging the nutritional gap between breast milk and formula feeding. CEO …

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