Bond Pet Foods began as a maker of plant-based pet treats and is shifting to develop precision-fermented, nature-identical chicken, beef, fish and other meat proteins for pet food. The company has partnered with Hill’s Pet Nutrition to develop a craft meat protein and is positioning to supply other established pet-food brands rather than building its own consumer-facing line. Bond is based in Boulder, Colorado, and plans to scale production at a new 15,000-square-foot facility in Boulder while tripling the size of its team. Management expects the facility to be complete in Q1 2023 and initial meat proteins ready for commercialization in roughly two years, including pilot feeding programs and regulatory work. The move is framed against a global pet food market valued at $110 billion in 2021 and projected to grow to $164 billion by 2029. Since 2017 the company has raised a total of $20 million, including a $17.5 million Series A in June. Bond Pet Foods develops dog and cat foods produced via microbial fermentation to make real animal proteins without animals. In August the startup announced a prototype of its "chicken without the chicken" product. Co-founder Rich Kellman said Bond is currently the only company developing meat proteins through microbial fermentation in the pet food space. The company plans to develop other cultured meat proteins for pet nutrition, including turkey, pork, and beef, and is exploring applications in the human food space. Financially, Bond completed $1.2 million in seed funding in December and a seed extension this year, bringing private raises to just under $2M to date; it also received a $250,000 grant from the Colorado OEDIT Advanced Industries Accelerator Grant Program. Bond states its mission is to be an ally for all animals by finding a better way to make complete, nutritious food for pets. Bond Pet Foods is a biotechnology company that produces animal-free, protein-rich ingredients for pet food by using fermentation to grow muscle proteins in microbes such as yeast. The company adapts fermentation technology used for cheese-making and insulin production to harvest high-quality proteins nutritionally identical to chicken, turkey, beef, pork and fish. Its proprietary process inserts animal muscle protein genes into microbes, ferments them with simple sugars, vitamins and minerals, and uses the resulting proteins as the foundation of complete pet-food recipes. Bond plans to use the seed proceeds to drive R&D and scale its animal protein production. It intends to debut its first consumer product — a protein-packed dog treat bar made with a pure yeast protein — early next year. The company reported closing a $1.2M seed round to support these efforts.

Total raised

$19M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Sep 2022