Participated · Seed · Feb 2023

Michroma uses precision fermentation and filamentous fungi as “biofactories” to produce natural food colorants and, later, plant-based flavorings. Its first product, Red+, is a red colorant engineered to be temperature-resistant and stable across the food pH spectrum, surviving pasteurization, cooking and extrusion. Red+ has been prototyped with large food companies and can also be used to color cultivated meat. The company plans to expand its palette from warm colors (orange, yellow) toward blue and white while selling flavorings in combination with its colors. Michroma is negotiating with suppliers and intends to submit petitions to the U.S. FDA and the European Food Safety Authority; the regulatory process is expected to take at least two years. The startup currently has about 15 employees and plans to grow to 35, funded in part by recent seed financing that brought its total venture capital to $7.4M. Michroma develops sustainable, vegan, fungus-based natural colorants intended to replace synthetic petroleum-derived dyes and insect-derived cochineal (red 80). Founded in early 2019 in Argentina, the startup moved to San Francisco in September and is participating in IndieBio's accelerator. Its platform uses a GRAS fungal strain grown in bioreactors to produce intense, stable red, orange, and yellow pigments while reducing water use and carbon footprint compared with crop-derived colorants. The company argues vegetable-based alternatives like beetroot extract underperform on pH and temperature stability and impart flavor, making them difficult for industry use. Michroma says it already can effectively produce red, orange and yellow and is working to optimize and scale production while developing green and blue variants. Financially, Michroma has received early backing and plans further fundraising to accelerate scale-up.

Participated · Seed · May 2022

Melt&Marble is a Gothenburg-based biotech company that uses advanced microbial engineering and precision fermentation to produce fats without relying on animal or plant sources. Its technology custom-designs lipid profiles, aiming to deliver cost-competitive, locally produced ingredients that satisfy both performance and sustainability requirements. The company targets food and personal-care manufacturers, positioning its fats as functional replacements for conventional animal or tropical oils. Melt&Marble emphasizes scalability, planning to expand production capacity and launch its first commercial ingredients following its new financing. Management states that its approach can meet strict technical specifications while reducing environmental impact. Over the past year the company has secured €10 million in combined equity and non-dilutive funding, strengthening its financial footing for upcoming pilots and go-to-market efforts.

Participated · Series A · Nov 2021

New Culture uses precision fermentation to produce milk casein proteins (alpha, beta and kappa caseins) by inserting DNA sequences into microbes and harvesting the expressed proteins to make mozzarella. The collected casein is blended with water, plant-based fats, vitamins and minerals to create a cheese that investors say tastes, smells and stretches like milk cheese and is cholesterol- and lactose-free. The company plans to first distribute its mozzarella through pizzerias around the country beginning next year and sees potential to expand into yogurts, ice cream and milk in the future, while keeping the near-term focus on mozzarella. New Culture is a three-year-old, Bay Area-based startup. The fundraising is intended to commercialize its animal-free cheese and scale production. Market context in the article notes the U.S. cheese market was $34.3 billion in 2019 (projected to $45.5 billion by 2027) while vegan cheese was about $1.2 billion in 2019 (projected to $4.4 billion by 2027). New Culture develops animal-free dairy cheese by producing dairy proteins via fermentation and combining them with plant-based fats, sugars and traditional cheese-making processes. Founded in late 2018 and led by CEO Matt Gibson and CSO Inja Radman, the company aims to replicate dairy cheese without animals. It closed a $3.5M seed round to support its next phase. The funds will be used to set up an R&D and fermentation facility and to grow the team. The round was led by Evolv Ventures with participation from Bee Partners, Mayfield, CPT Capital, Boost VC and SOSV. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, New Culture is focused on building fermentation capacity to advance its cheese production. New Culture is developing dairy cheese by producing essential dairy proteins (casein) through microbial fermentation, enabling what they call “cow cheese without the cow.” Their first product will be fresh mozzarella, created by combining microbially produced casein with plant-based lipids, sugars and minerals. The team is still in development, recreating complex casein micelles and relying on strong protein-engineering expertise. They expect to launch in select US restaurants in 18–24 months and already maintain a waiting list on their website for early tasters. Target customers are vegetarians, flexitarians and other conscious plant-based consumers, with plans to later pursue mainstream dairy consumers. Financially, the company secured $200K in pre-seed funding from IndioBio, a San Francisco–based science accelerator that specializes in biotech food firms.

Participated · Series B · Aug 2021

Planted develops plant-based whole-cut meats and smaller mock-meat products by combining biostructuring (wet extrusion) and a fermentation step to create fibrous, meat-like textures from pea, oat and sunflower proteins. The company lists a short ingredient set for its vegan chicken (pea protein, pea fiber, canola oil, water, plus vitamin B12) and emphasizes no flavourings, preservatives, soy, gluten, lactose or GMOs. Founded in 2019 and based near Zurich, Planted currently sells into roughly 4,200 retailers and 3,000+ restaurants across three regional markets. It recently doubled production volume in May, which enabled some price reductions, and says pricing today sits between free-range and organic chicken depending on market. The new capital will be used to launch a whole-cut product line (including a plant-based chicken breast), expand further in Europe (targeting the Benelux after early German-speaking focus), and boost production capacity while optimizing processes to shrink the price gap with animal meat. Planted is a Swiss alternative-protein company that spun out of ETH Zurich in 2019 and builds plant-based whole-cut meat replacements using an extrusion process that forms fibrous, meat-like structures. The company has diversified its protein inputs to include oat and sunflower and has developed products such as pulled pork and kebab alternatives. Planted says it has added fermentation/biotech techniques to enhance taste and texture and to enable structure creation without form limitation. Its latest product is a single-piece, breaded schnitzel (not pressed from smaller bits) which is slated to debut in Q3. Planted currently sells exclusively in Europe and plans market entries across several new markets in Q3 and Q4; a U.S. launch is planned eventually but is dependent on COVID-19 travel restrictions. The recent financing is being used to continue growth, scale production and bring new “whole” or “prime” cuts out of the lab and into consumer testing and scaling. Planted develops and sells plant‑based meat‑replacement products, combining structuring technologies with the biochemical toolbox of natural microorganisms to create new items. Its products are sold in over 3,000 retail stores—including Coop and Migros in Switzerland, Edeka in Germany and Spar in Austria—supplies hundreds of foodservice partners, and reaches consumers via its online shop. The company plans to use the new funding to strengthen its international presence and expand its partner network. Management says it will make substantial investments in research and development to meet rising demand for sustainable foods. The founders are Christoph Jenny, Pascal Bieri, Lukas Böni and Eric Stirnemann. The company has seen strong recent growth in the DACH market and intends to build on that momentum.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2021

Bluu Seafood develops cultivated (lab-grown) fish products using stem-cell technology derived from a one-time fish biopsy that does not require killing fish. The company unveiled first products in August, including fish sticks and fish balls made from cultivated fish cells enriched with plant proteins to improve mouth-feel and cooking. Bluu was founded in Berlin in 2020 as Bluu Biosciences. The startup is focusing on regulatory approval and commercialisation, targeting Singapore (expects approval sometime in 2024), has initiated the FDA approval process, and plans to enter European markets thereafter. Financially, the company had previously raised €7.1 million and is now funded to pursue market entry and scaling. Bluu positions its products as a response to overfishing, contamination and animal-cruelty issues in seafood production. Bluu Biosciences is developing lab-grown salmon, trout and carp, with a particular focus on carp as an attractive target for large Asian markets. The company leverages immortalized fish cell lines developed by co‑founder Sebastian Rakers, who cultivated and immortalized cell lines from more than 20 fish species during research at the Fraunhofer Institute. Bluu says those immortalized cells allow vastly greater proliferation than normal cells, which the founders describe as a strong competitive advantage for scaling production. The startup plans to have a prototype product by the end of 2022 and is actively pushing for regulatory progress as one of the last obstacles to commercialization. Bluu raised €7 million in the announced financing to accelerate commercialization and to benefit from emerging technology providers in media, bioreactors and scaffolding. Founders Simon Fabich and Sebastian Rakers aim to focus on the Asian market, where shifting production behavior could have the biggest sustainability impact.