Montreal Cell-Based Dairy Company Opalia Closes $3.2M Seed Round with Commercial Pilots Already Underway
Montreal-based Opalia has closed an initial $3.2 million CAD seed round to advance its cell-based milk platform, having already secured paid pre-commercial pilot agreements with several established dairy players before reaching market. The round was led by Nàdarra Ventures, with participation from Spring Capital, UCEED, and Anges Quebec, alongside existing backers Investissement Québec, Cycle Momentum, and BoxOne Ventures. Whole milk without the cow Opalia uses mammary cells cultivated in bioreactors …
California Startup Fermeate Closes $2M Seed Round for Light-Based Fermentation Control Technology
California-based startup Fermeate has raised $2 million in seed funding to scale its optogenetics platform, which uses light signals to control gene expression inside microbial cells during fermentation. The round was led by Newfund Capital, with participation from SOSV and Ajinomoto Group Ventures. The technology inserts light-sensitive proteins into microbial strains, enabling manufacturers to activate or deactivate specific genes in real time. A targeted promoter directs which enzyme or protein …
AI-Integrated Fermentation Capacity Expands at Praj Matrix as India Targets Bio-Based Economy
Indian industrial biotech company Praj Industries has launched an Advanced Precision Fermentation Lab at its Praj Matrix R&D centre in Pune, India, alongside a formal research partnership with BRIC-NCCS (Biotechnology Research and Innovation Council – National Centre for Cell Science). The facility is designed to support high-capacity, AI-enabled fermentation processes across sectors, including food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, biofuels, and beverages, with a stated focus on reducing scale-up risks and improving process …
Celleste Bio Uses Single Cocoa Bean to Make Chocolate Bars via Cell Culture Technology
Israeli food technology company Celleste Bio has produced what it describes as the world’s first chocolate bars made with cell-cultured cocoa butter, developed in partnership with Mondelez International. The bars, nearly a dozen in total, were formulated by Mondelez using cocoa butter produced through Celleste’s proprietary cell suspension culture technology. According to the company, the cultured cocoa butter is bio-identical to conventionally sourced material, matching the same texture, melt profile, …
Business Portal vegconomist Continues Role as Independent Observer of Alternative Protein Market
vegconomist is pleased to announce that the B2B portal for the plant-based and cultivated food sectors will continue its operations. Under the editorial lead of Vera Oswald, who has shaped the platform’s direction since 2023 and most recently served as co-Managing Director alongside founder Peter Link, the editorial focus and the suite of products will stay loyal to the established tradition. “The core direction and portfolio remain unchanged,” Oswald points …
Ajinomoto Finds Plant-Based Fix for One of Cultivated Meat’s Biggest Cost Problems
Japanese food and amino acid company Ajinomoto Co. has developed a technology that could help lower one of the biggest cost barriers in cultivated meat production, by replacing an expensive ingredient used in the cell-growing process with a cheaper, plant-derived compound. Growing meat from animal cells requires a nutrient-rich liquid called culture media, which feeds and supports cell growth throughout production. One of the most expensive ingredients in that liquid …
GFI’s 2026 State of the Industry Reports Detail Mixed Year for Alternative Proteins Across All Three Sectors
The Good Food Institute (GFI) has published its 2026 State of the Industry report series, providing a comprehensive overview of the plant-based, fermentation-derived, and cultivated meat sectors in 2025. The reports cover commercial activity, investment flows, scientific developments, and regulatory progress across each sector. While the funding environment tightened across all three categories in 2025, GFI’s analysis points to continued technical and commercial progress, with cost reductions, regulatory milestones, and …
Yeast-Based Ingredient Startup Cosaic Closes $6 Million Round Backed by dsm-firmenich Ventures
Swiss fermentation startup Cosaic has secured a $6 million seed extension to advance its yeast-based ingredient platform toward commercial launch. The round was led by dsm-firmenich Ventures, the venture arm of dsm-firmenich, a global ingredients and nutrition company. Additional participants include a Swiss family office, Swiss deeptech investor Kickfund, and existing backers Navus Ventures and Zuercher Kantonalbank. What Cosaic is building Cosaic is developing a new category of food ingredients …
Clean Food Group Raises £4.5M to Bring “World’s Largest” Yeast-Oil Facility to Full Capacity
UK biotech manufacturer Clean Food Group (CFG) has raised £4.5 million in a funding round led by Clean Growth Fund and new investor New Agrarian, with the capital earmarked for scaling its fermentation facility in Knowsley, Liverpool. The company has also received a £700,000 non-dilutive grant from Innovate UK. The Knowsley site, which CFG acquired in September 2025, holds one million litres of fermentation capacity and is positioned as what …
German Vaccine Scientists Are Now Applying Their Expertise to Scaling Cultivated Meat
One of Germany’s most respected scientific institutions is lending its bioprocess engineering expertise to the cultivated meat sector, in a new collaboration that could help bridge the gap between laboratory-scale cell cultivation and full industrial output. The Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg has entered into a formal research partnership with Rostock-based startup Innocent Meat under a project titled “Cellular Agriculture and Process Intensification” (ZELPI). …