Alt protein venture capital firm Big Idea Ventures has announced the first investments made as part of its New Protein Fund II. Ten early-stage startups have been chosen to receive pre-seed funding through the firm’s biannual accelerator program in New York and Paris.
They are:
New York
- Future Cow (Brazil) — Animal-free milk made via the precision fermentation of agro-industrial waste. The product is molecularly identical to cow’s milk.
- Naturannova (Chile) — Uses a proprietary Natural AI technology to rapidly identify peptides in nature, creating natural, healthy, and sustainable flavors.
- Pioneer Biolabs (US) — Has developed a proprietary genomic screening platform to engineer and optimize microbial cells for protein production.
- Harvest Moon Foods (Canada) — The first Canadian company to use precision fermentation to turn agricultural waste into dairy proteins.
- SoundEats (US) — Cultivated seafood producer developing high-quality contractile muscle tissue, with a focus on dramatically reducing production costs.
Paris
- New Wave Biotech (UK) — Develops bioprocess optimization software to help alternative proteins and other synbio products get to market quicker, more cheaply, and more sustainably.
- Perfat Technologies (Finland) — Value-added vegetable-based fat solutions for the food industry, with a superior nutritional profile compared to traditional semi-solid and solid fats.
- PFx Biotech (Portugal) — Has developed a systems biology platform for the large-scale production of human milk proteins, suitable for use in infant and follow-up formula along with sports and nutrition products.
- Yeastime (Italy) — Develops retrofitted ultrasound devices to help producers of cultivated foods generate up to 30% more output, while reducing costs and the amount of time required.
- Zymoscope (Denmark) — Uses a data-driven IoT Fermentation Management Platform to enhance capacity, yield, and cost-efficiency in biomanufacturing.
“The 10 companies in our first cohort of NPF II are backed by fantastic innovators and creative minds,” said Andrew D. Ive, founder of Big Idea Ventures. “These companies showcase the breadth of the alternative protein industry beyond just meat applications. It is a testament to how enabling technologies, fats applications and biomaterials are helping existing companies grow and scale at a more rapid pace. I encourage investors, corporate leaders, and partners to reach out to the founders of the companies that most excite them and find out more about the innovative technologies and applications they are developing.”
A third round of investments is being made through Big Idea Ventures’ Singapore office, and the companies will be announced soon.
