New York-based foodtech investor Big Idea Ventures has announced 5 new additions to its Global Food Innovation Fund II (GFIF II), with the latest cohort spanning fermentation, plant cell biomanufacturing, cold chain stabilization, bioactive delivery, and enzyme-based extraction.
The five companies come from four countries: Argentina, France, Mexico, and the United States, and each receives a $200,000 investment package alongside access to the fund’s accelerator network of mentors, R&D resources, and corporate partners.
Tackling the cost barrier
A recurring theme across the cohort is cost reduction. Several of the companies are working on problems that have historically made biotech-derived ingredients prohibitively expensive at scale. US-based Saku Biosciences uses directed evolution to boost fermentation output and accelerate routes to market, while RheaPlant, also US-based, applies plant cell biomanufacturing to produce botanical ingredients that are difficult to source through conventional means, with year-round consistency and lower cost as the primary differentiators.
On the extraction side, Mexico-based XiA’H replaces solvent and heat-based processes with enzyme-based extraction to produce bioactive ingredients from plant biomass, drawing on a proprietary medicinal plant database. The approach targets the food, agrifood, and industrial biotechnology sectors, where clean-label sourcing has become an increasingly common specification from buyers.
Delivery and preservation
Two further companies address how ingredients and food products hold up through production and transport. BioClé, operating across Argentina and the US, has built a bacterial extracellular vesicle platform designed for targeted intracellular delivery of bioactives, with applications across food, supplements, and nutrition. France-based CryoVera takes a different angle, developing an anti-crystallization molecule that inhibits ice recrystallization during cold chain transport to prevent texture degradation in frozen products.
Caroline Mak, Senior Director of Acceleration at Big Idea Ventures, explained, “From bioactive ingredients to technologies that enhance stability, bioavailability, and shelf life, these companies are enabling ‘less but better’ food. At the same time, the companies in this cohort are tackling one of the industry’s biggest barriers: cost.
“By advancing more efficient, scalable production methods, they are making complex biotechnologies commercially viable by reducing capital intensity, de-risking R&D, and accelerating commercialization.”
About the fund
GFIF II builds on the firm’s earlier New Protein Fund I and is backed by food corporations, including AAK and Bühler, as well as family offices. Big Idea Ventures has made more than 160 investments across 30 countries to date.
