• BlueRedGold

  Participated · Equity · Jun 2025

  BlueRedGold is building the world’s first scalable, automated indoor saffron farming system that combines AI, robotics, hydroponics, and modular hardware. Their system replicates ideal growing conditions indoors to enable multiple cultivation cycles per year and automates saffron flower picking and stigma separation. The company aims to license the system globally across the food, medical, cosmetics, and nutraceutical sectors. BlueRedGold has received requests for more than several tonnes of saffron from nutraceutical, food, and cosmetics industries, indicating early market traction. It raised €2.73 million to construct a first-of-its-kind blueprint facility — a modular plant designed for profitability from the start — and to accelerate development of its scalable indoor cultivation system. The funding round was led by PINC, the venture arm of Paulig, and included The Food Tech Lab and PolarVentures. Andrei Boulescu recently joined as CTO and Head of Automation and Production to help scale AI-driven automation and production.

• Brevel

  Participated · Seed · Mar 2025

  Brevel develops a white, neutral‑flavored microalgae protein isolate powder intended for meat and dairy alternatives, offering emulsifying, gelling, and foaming functionality and a full amino‑acid profile. Its proprietary platform unites light and sugar‑based fermentation to produce nutrient‑rich microalgae at high yields without genetic modification, and to capture co‑products such as functional oil, antioxidants, and fibers. The company completed a first‑of‑a‑kind commercial factory and scaled technology to a commercial production volume of 5,000L; it opened a 27,000 sq ft commercial plant in 2024 with capacity to produce hundreds of tons of microalgae protein powder annually. Brevel has signed a commercial and joint‑development agreement with The Central Bottling Company (CBC Group) and is pursuing manufacturing JV partnerships and additional offtake agreements in preparation for large‑scale production. Management says it will roll out additional products in the summer and is focused on achieving cost parity via revenue from co‑products. The company is headquartered in Kiryat Gat, Israel. Brevel is a Tel Aviv–based company founded in 2016 by three brothers that uses a proprietary technology combining fermentation and light to produce a microalgae protein powder for food manufacturers. The protein is positioned as a neutral “ghost protein” that does not affect flavor, color or texture, and the process yields co-products such as functional lipids and pigments that help achieve cost parity with pea and soy. Brevel currently operates a 500-liter pilot facility in Israel and plans to scale into a commercial 5,000-liter fermentation-and-light system. The company is preparing a much larger facility with total capacity of 900,000 liters planned for 2025. Brevel is initially targeting the dairy-alternative sector and has signed an agreement with Vgarden to incorporate its protein into plant-based cheese, with first products expected on shelves in 2024. The company says it will leverage newly raised funds to continue development and scale-up of its protein platform.

• Pack2Earth

  Participated · Seed · Feb 2024

  Pack2Earth, founded in January 2022 in Barcelona, develops biobased materials that compost at ambient temperature and are suitable for packaging products ranging from dry goods to liquids with long shelf lives (6–12 months depending on product). The company has two PCT patent applications for a flexible film and an injection-mouldable material that seal together and can be produced on existing plastic manufacturing equipment. Its materials are described as high-barrier to gases and generate a compost free of toxic substances and microplastics at end of life. Pack2Earth is running pilots with about 25 companies, including food groups such as Vicky Foods and Angulas Aguinaga, and pet-food brands like Platinum and Dingonatura. The team comprises eight people, and the company plans to license materials, protect its intellectual property, and scale commercial deployments. Pack2Earth aims to replace fossil-based and other contaminating plastics across packaging and molded articles while enabling rapid adoption via compatibility with current machinery.

• MAOLAC

  Participated · Seed · Jul 2022

  Maolac uses a proteomics discovery platform and computational biology to identify and extract functional proteins from bovine colostrum and plant-based sources, building a library of over 1,500 bioactive proteins found in human breast milk. The company found bovine colostrum contains more than 400 homolog proteins with over 95% biosimilarity to human breast milk and formulates a white powdered milk protein mixture that digests similarly to breast milk and can be added to cooked foods. Maolac says its mixtures produce higher overall efficacy at lower dosages and plans to price competitively relative to existing ingredients (competitors charge about $500/kg). The company is pre-revenue and is working on a first product line of anti-inflammatory aids: one for athletes to reduce muscle strain and speed recovery, and one to improve elderly mobility, with products expected to hit the market in 2023. Maolac is building a pilot facility with ~100 kg/month small‑scale production capacity, preparing analytics and samples for customers and clinical trials, and plans to expand its 12‑person team. It is also pursuing regulatory approval in the U.S. and Europe and is in discussions with food, supplement and dairy companies globally.

• Better Juice

  Participated · Seed · Jun 2021

  Better Juice develops an enzymatic, clean-label sugar-reduction technology that uses proprietary beads of non-GMO microorganisms to convert sucrose, glucose and fructose into prebiotic fibers and other non-digestible compounds while preserving vitamins and organic acids. The process enables sugar reduction of 30–80% and has advanced to commercial scale in the U.S., with proof-of-concept work performed with juice manufacturers in the U.S. and Asia. The company has manufacturing collaboration with GEA for its bioreactor and the GEA Better Juice Sugar Converter Skid has been included in GEA’s test center since 2022. Better Juice reports a processing capacity of 250 million liters of sugar-reduced juice per year and has accrued several patents. Founded in 2018 and based in Rehovot, Israel, the company was initially supported by The Kitchen Hub and has raised US$8M in seed-round investments. Better Juice is a Rehovot, Israel-based company that has developed enzymatic technology to reduce all sugars in natural juices. Its non-GMO enzymatic process converts fructose, glucose, and sucrose into prebiotic dietary fibers and other non-digestible molecules. The technology targets orange juice’s specific sugar composition to naturally create a low-calorie, reduced-sugar product with delicate sweetness using all-natural ingredients. The company’s core product is reduced-sugar natural juice produced via enzyme conversion. Better Juice was incubated in The Kitchen Hub (Strauss Group and IIA’s foodtech incubator) and received early funding from Maverick Ventures and other global partners. It raised $8M in seed funding to commercialize and scale production.

No current team members are available.