Cocoa-tech startup Celleste Bio has raised $4.5 million in a seed round to produce its cell-cultured cocoa ingredients for the food industry.
The round was led by early-stage investor Supply Change Capital, with the participation of Mondelēz International’s venture capital arm SnackFutures Ventures, Consensus Business Group, Barrel Venture Partners, The Trendlines Group, and Regba Agriculture.
“Climate change and conventional farming practices are depleting our rainforests”
The new funds will help Celleste Bio boost its research and development, infrastructure, and technological capabilities to achieve commercial scale.
Michal Beressi Golomb, CEO of Celleste Bio, shared, “Climate change and conventional farming practices are depleting our rainforests, resulting in unprecedented environmental and financial challenges to grow enough cocoa to meet the needs of a $100B — and growing — chocolate industry. This round provides us with the financial and strategic support we need to accelerate product development, scalability, and commercial readiness.”
Hanne Volpin (CTO), Orna Harel, Avishay Levy, and Daphna Michaeli, supported by The Trendlines Group, co-founded Celleste Bio in 2022 to create a sustainable cacao supply.
The cacao industry faces huge environmental problems due to climate change. Traditional farming needs to deliver more production to meet an expanding supply demand driven by a chocolate industry growing at an annual rate of over 10%. Shortages in supply have led to rising cocoa prices and deforestation to increase production areas.
Indoor farming all year round
Instead of land farming, the startup has developed a plant-cell cultivation and AI platform to grow natural cocoa in bioreactors indoors all year round, regardless of the climate. The process starts with cells extracted from cocoa beans, which multiply in a controlled environment, nourished by a nutrient-rich solution. Impressively, for one ton of cocoa butter, only a single cocoa pod is needed, according to Celleste Bio.
“We take just 1-2 beans, extract the cocoa cells, and grow them in a controlled setting with water and nutrients. This is a continuous cycle that repeats itself without ever needing to crack open another pod. Our ability to create 1 ton of cocoa butter from a single cocoa pod and do this anywhere around the world — will secure the future of cocoa production needed to fuel the growing $16B chocolate category,” the biotech startup explains on its website.
Importance of sustainable production
The seed investors recognized the importance of sustainable cocoa production. Supply Change Capital stresses the urgent need for such innovations, while The Trendlines Agrifood fund sees Celleste as an example of how to rebuild the world’s agricultural system.
Meanwhile, Richie Gray, VP, Global Head of Mondelez International’s SnackFutures Ventures, commented, “While still in its early stages, Celleste has great promise as a complementary technology to traditional farming practices. Combining Celleste’s technology with our unmatched capability and expertise will push the boundaries of what’s possible in building the cocoa supply chain of the future.”
“As one of the world’s largest chocolate producers, we are acutely aware of the supply chain challenges we need to overcome to produce our iconic chocolate brands like Milka, Cadbury, and Toblerone while also having a positive impact on our business, consumers, and the environment.”
