Cultivated X - by vegconomist

Earth First Food Ventures Opens $10M Funding Round for Precision Fermented Dairy via Tokenization

September 11, 2024

Venture capital platform Earth First Food Ventures (EFFV) has launched a $10 million Series A funding round via tokenization. The investment will expand EFFV’s portfolio in the alt-dairy sector, launch a $50 million fund dedicated to “The Future of Dairy from Precision Fermentation,” and support team growth. The innovative fund is listed on Securitize, the leading platform for tokenizing real-world assets on a blockchain, to make investment opportunities in disruptive …

South Korea's TissenBioFarm announces it has won the "Cultured Meat Product of the Year" in the 2024 AgTech Breakthrough Awards.

Company News

Marbled Cultivated Meat by TissenBioFarm Wins AgTech Breakthrough Award

September 10, 2024

South Korea’s TissenBioFarm announces it has won the “Cultured Meat Product of the Year” in the 2024 AgTech Breakthrough Awards. The cultivated meat startup says that the award recognizes the impact of its low-cost, scalable technologies for producing cultivated meat. AgTech Breakthrough is a market intelligence organization that acknowledges top companies, technologies, and products in agricultural and food technology. Bryan Vaughn, Managing Director of AgTech Breakthrough, shared, “TissenBioFarm is creating a …

Organisations and Brands:

Investments & Finance

Formo Raises $61M, Launches Fermented Cheese Alternatives at 2,000+ Stores

September 10, 2024

Formo, a German producer of fermented cheese alternatives, has raised $61 million in a Series B funding round. The round saw participation from existing investors such as Foodlabs, EQT Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Happiness Capital, Elevat3 Capital, and Grazia Capital. New investors, including Sazaby League, Seven Ventures, Woodline Partners, The Nature Conservancy, and REWE Group, also took part. Formo will use the funding to achieve several objectives, including expanding internationally, diversifying …

Organisations and Brands:

Formo

Image courtesy of Melt&Marble

Fermentation

Fermented Fats Designer Melt&Marble Achieves 10,000-Liter Production Milestone

September 10, 2024September 9, 2024

Precision fermentation startup Melt&Marble has achieved a milestone in biomanufacturing with the demo-scale production of over ten thousand liters of fermentation for fats. According to the Swedish startup, the target bioprocess performance was maintained throughout the scale-up, achieving a 10-fold increase in bioreactor volume while sustaining comparable strain and performance metrics. This achievement builds on a previous bioreactor trial and demonstrates the platform’s scalability and robustness, explains Melt&Marble. CEO Anastasia Krivoruchko …

Organisations and Brands:

Melt&Marble

Fermentation

METRO Germany Becomes “First” Wholesaler to Sell Formo Animal-Free Cream Cheese

September 9, 2024

METRO Germany is now offering Frischain, an animal-free cream cheese produced by the German startup Formo. The wholesaler claims to be the first in the world to stock the product. Frischain is made using microfermentation, which produces functional proteins that can be processed using traditional dairy cheese production methods. These proteins are derived from koji, a fungus traditionally used in soy sauce, miso, and sake to break down complex molecules …

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Investments & Finance

Investment Climate Podcast: George Zheleznyi of Cultimate Foods – How to get funded in 2024

September 6, 2024September 6, 2024

In this podcast series, co-produced by vegconomist, Alex Shandrovsky interviews investors about benchmarks for funding Alt Proteins in 2024 and uncovers the investment playbooks of successful Climate Tech CEOs and Leading VCs. Podcast Host Alex Shandrovksy is a strategic advisor to numerous global food tech accelerators and companies, including alternative proteins and cellular agriculture leaders. His focus is on investor relations and post-raise scale for agrifood tech companies. Episode 12: …

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Cultimate

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.

Investments & Finance

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

September 6, 2024

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 …

Organisations and Brands:

Galy

Fermentation

Impossible Foods and Motif FoodWorks Settle Heme Patent Tech Dispute

September 5, 2024

Impossible Foods and Motif FoodWorks have announced a joint settlement agreement regarding the legal battle over a patent infringement of heme technology using yeast and precision fermentation. Under the deal, Impossible Foods would acquire Motif FoodWorks‘ heme-related business. The agreement also stipulates neither party can renew allegations or bring the issue back to court, reported AFN. With this settlement, Impossible Foods, which produces the protein soy leghemoglobin found in soy, …

Organisations and Brands:

Protein

Bezos Earth Fund Establishes Sustainable Protein Research Hub at National University of Singapore

September 5, 2024September 5, 2024

The Bezos Earth Fund has announced the establishment of the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein at the National University of Singapore (NUS), marking its first initiative of this kind in Asia. The centre, which is backed by a US$30 million grant, will focus on advancing sustainable protein research and the commercial development of alternative proteins in the region. The NUS centre will focus on key areas such as biomass fermentation, …

Organisations and Brands:

Bezos Earth Fund

Company News

21st.BIO’s Precision Fermented Whey for Animal-Free Dairy Obtains US GRAS Status

September 4, 2024September 4, 2024

Danish fermentation upscaling partner 21st.BIO announces that it has earned self-affirmed Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status for its precision fermented beta-lactoglobulin, BLG Essential+. The GRAS milestone assures that 21st. BIO’s animal-free whey is safe for human consumption, allowing its commercialization within US territory. According to the biotech company, beta-lactoglobulin, the predominant protein in milk’s whey, has garnered significant interest from producers due to its high nutritional quality and beneficial properties …

Organisations and Brands:

21st.BIO

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