Led · Series A · May 2021

Plant Power Fast Food is a plant-based fast-food restaurant chain headquartered in San Diego, California. The company offers convenient, sustainable and healthier fast-food options without sacrificing taste and satisfaction. It currently operates seven locations and reported year-over-year enterprise-wide retail net sales growth of over 50% from 2019 to 2020. The chain plans continued expansion with a focus on new corporate unit development and has eight new store openings including Sacramento, Hollywood and Las Vegas. The company was founded by Mitch Wallis, Zach Vouga and Jeffrey Harris; co-CEO Zach Vouga said the funds will be used to execute expansion plans. The board was expanded with Sebastien Koechli from Fusion Ventures to add corporate finance experience as the company works toward future milestones.

Participated · Series A · Dec 2020

TurtleTree leverages proprietary cell-based technology to produce milk ingredients with demonstrated benefits for immune function, gut health and cognitive development. Led by CEO Fengru Lin and Chief Strategy Officer Max Rye, the company is focused on scaling research and production. It plans to launch lactoferrin, a bioactive protein, as its first commercial product. TurtleTree intends to expand its portfolio of food items and continue technology development. The company also plans to grow its R&D team to support commercialization. TurtleTree recently raised funding to advance these efforts. TurtleTree Labs is a Singaporean foodtech startup that cultures milk in the lab using mammalian cells, initially targeting a human-free version of breastmilk and animal-free growing-up milk for toddlers. The company pursues a B2B model and reported working with four or five of the world’s largest infant milk companies. By June it had reduced the price of its cultured milk to $30 per liter from around $180 per liter at the end of 2019. The latest funding will support R&D into milk component compounds, including functional bioactive proteins and complex sugars with potential gut and brain health benefits, and development of high-value nutraceutical products for adults and the elderly. TurtleTree says it received government permission to continue R&D during Singapore’s Covid-19 circuit breaker and is working closely with regulatory agencies as it seeks approvals similar to the recent clearance for a cultured protein product in Singapore. Co-founders Fengru Lin and Max Rye frame the company’s vision as creating a sustainable, cruelty-free food system and expanding beyond infant nutrition into broader human nutrition and the dairy industry. TurtleTree Labs develops real milk produced from mammalian cells rather than from animals, focusing on cell‑based dairy products. The company is co‑founded by Max Rye and Fengru Lin and is based in Singapore. It has a team of more than 20 full‑time scientists and engineers working on product development. TurtleTree intends to use the new funds to continue to expand its development efforts. Financially, the company completed a $3.2M seed funding round in 2020 and previously raised an initial investment in 2019 led by Lever VC. The funds are intended to support ongoing R&D and scaling of its cell‑based milk technology. TurtleTree Labs develops real milk grown from animal cells using stem cell technology, aiming to recreate milk inside the lab. The company describes itself as the world’s first cell-based milk company. Its core product is lab-grown milk intended to replicate dairy composition and quality while avoiding animal agriculture. TurtleTree says the recent pre-seed funding will be used to hire additional scientists and build more prototypes. The team positions the technology to disrupt a multi-billion dollar dairy industry, reduce carbon footprint, and provide safer, more reliable dairy products. The company was co-founded by CEO Fengru Lin, CSO Rabail Toor, and Chief Strategist Max Rye and is based in Singapore.