Celleste Bio Secures $4.5M to Scale Production of Cell-Cultured Cocoa, Mondelēz VC Arm Participates
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. The new funds will help Celleste Bio boost its research and development, infrastructure, and technological capabilities …
Ergo Bioscience Creates “Animal Proteins, Without Animals” for the Next Generation of Plant-Based
Ergo Bioscience, recognized in 2022 by FoodBytes! from Rabobank as one of the 15 most disruptive food tech startups worldwide, specializes in developing complex animal proteins such as bovine myoglobin and casein through plant cell culture. Founded in May 2020 with pre-seed investment from CITES, the startup boasts a team of 12 scientists dedicated to innovation and biotechnology to create animal-free ingredients. With biotech research in Wilmington, Delaware, laboratories in …
Coffee Without Beans, Chocolate Without Cocoa – The Companies Making Plants from Cells (and why we need them)
Plant cell cultivation is revolutionizing the production of various crops by growing plant cells in controlled environments, such as bioreactors, to produce plant-based products. Why do we need plant cell cultivation technology? Demand for commodities like coffee and chocolate continues to grow as Earth’s populace continues to hurtle towards a figure of 9.8 billion projected for 2050. Meanwhile, the area of land suitable for growing such crops is rapidly shrinking. …
Plant Cell Culture Company Ayana Bio Appoints Jill Zullo, Formerly of Cargill, to Board of Directors
Plant cell culture technology company Ayana Bio announces the appointment of Jill Zullo, PhD, described as “an experienced commercial leader with deep technical roots in biotechnology”, to the company’s Board of Directors. Zullo is the former president and CEO of NatureWorks and Global Managing Director Biointermediates at Cargill. According to the company, the appointment “further underscores the focus on establishing Ayana Bio as a leader in the plant cell culture …
Foray Bioscience Raises $3M to Restore Forests With Plant Cell Culture Tech
Boston-based Foray Bioscience, a startup leveraging plant cell culture to restore forests and, thus, secure plant supply chains, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by the Australian VC ReGen Ventures. Other participants, including Engine Ventures, Susquehanna Sustainable Investments, Understorey, Superorganism, and additional investors, backed the biotech in this round, bringing its total to $3.875 million. With a background in plant-based materials research from MIT and Draper Laboratory, Dr. Ashley Beckwith (CEO) founded Foray …
Kokomodo Creates Cultivated Cacao, Preserving Climate-Proof Supplies for the Future of Confectionery
Climate change poses a significant threat to the future supply of cacao (the unprocessed version of cocoa), with the majority of farmland predicted to become unfit for production by 2050. Recent severe weather events have negatively impacted cacao harvests in Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world’s biggest producers, causing significant shortages and high prices. But Kokomodo, a startup leveraging plant cell technology to “cultivate cocoa’s future” aims to ensure a stable, …
PluriAgtech Introduces Cell-Based Coffee to Provide an Alternative to Traditional Production
Israeli biotechnology firm Pluri, formerly Pluristem, (Nasdaq, TASE: PLUR) has launched PluriAgtech, a subsidiary leveraging plant cell culture to grow sustainable coffee and break away from traditional farming methods. As global warming continues to impact the coffee industry, shrinking viable land for cultivation and increasing demand leads to higher prices and less production. According to the company, by 2050, land for coffee production will be reduced by half, and 30% …
Israel’s Pigmentum: Producing Casein in Plants for Next Gen Milk Alternatives
Israel-based Pigmentum, on a mission to “become the leaders in sustainable production of biomolecules for human well-being,” introduces the next generation of a method for creating plants, which will drastically optimize ways for producing plant-based functional casein for the new wave of animal-free dairy. Further to the well-hyped products of cellular agriculture, new developments in plant cell tech are appearing around the world. Pigmentum produces casein in plants, as opposed …
Op Ed: Erik Amundson, CEO and Co-Founder of Vevolution, on Plant Cell Culture Tech
Erik Amundson, CEO and co-founder of Vevolution, here discusses plant cell culture technology. $896 million was invested into cultivated solutions in 2022, with Upside Foods raising an industry-accelerating $400M round. Investors are now actively investing in not only center plate meat alternatives, but also in the auxiliary and plant cell culture market of gelatin, chocolate, coffee, and other products. Imagine a world without coffee By Erik Amundson I’m not a …