Despite the difficult fundraising environment, German startup Cultimate Foods, a B2B cultivated fat supplier for the alt protein industry, has secured €2.3 million in seed funding to scale the production of its functional ingredient, CultiFat, and expand its operations and commercial collaborations.
High-Tech Gründerfonds, one of Europe’s leading seed investors, led the round, which also included participation from the Life Science Valley Wachstumsfonds, b.value AG, and Kale United. Food tech investor Big Idea Ventures also joined the round.
Made from beef and pork fat cells using cell ag technology, CultiFat contains the essential fatty acids responsible for the distinctive flavor and aroma of meat. According to Cultimate Foods, its fat is a game-changing ingredient that elevates the taste and texture of plant-based meat.
“Through innovative technology, we can deliver the meaty flavors consumers crave”
The German startup has developed two hybrid prototypes — plant-based and cultivated fat burgers and sausages — to showcase the potential of CultiFat (in terms of the aroma, since tastings in Europe require authorisation) at demo samplings hosted by the startup accelerator ProVeg Incubator. Additionally, it has already conducted several trial runs with major players in the food industry.
Eugenia Sagué, co-founder and MD of Cultimate Foods, shares: “Science is the key to addressing many of the problems caused by the food industry. Through innovative technology, we can deliver the meaty flavors consumers crave while simultaneously cutting down on unethical intensive animal farming and tackling climate change by reducing CO2 emissions.”
Revolutionizing alt meat
Cultimate Foods was founded by Sagué, Oskar Latyshev, and George Zhelezny to propel the adoption of meat alternatives with new technologies. It started in Göttingen at the Life Science Factory, where it conducted research after a pre-seed round. The startup participated in the ProVeg Incubator’s 8th cohort in 2022 and the sixth Big Idea Ventures cohort.
Nowadays, the biotech is based in Berlin’s Biocube and at the Institut für Technische Chemie in the University of Hannover. The company has raised more than €3 million to date and is backed by ProVeg International and Realum.cloud.
Tilmann Petersen, Investment Manager at HTGF, shared, “HTGF is excited to tap into a new investment vertical and support Cultimate Foods in revolutionizing the alternative meat industry with its cell-cultivated fat ingredient.”
Zheleznyi comments, “Closing the seed round in today’s fundraising environment validates the achievements of our technological approach and the efforts of our team.”
