The burgeoning food tech revolution continues apace with information that French startup Standing Ovation has raised €12 million ($12 million) in a collection A spherical of funding to develop an animal-free casein to be used in cheese.
Casein, for the uninitiated, is a protein present in dairy merchandise, and which constitutes round 80% of cow milk — it’s additionally what provides milk its white look. Whereas the vegan cheese market was pegged as a $2.5 billion industry in 2021, most individuals would agree that it’s not fairly as much as scratch with its milk-based counterpart. A scarcity of casein is a serious motive for this — other than coloration, casein is liable for vitamins, scent and and even the bodily “performance” in cheese, such because the stringy elasticity that’s distinctive of mozzarella.
Based out of Paris in 2020, Standing Ovation primarily replicates caseins in a lab setting, and it achieves this by way of a “precision fermentation” course of to recreate what’s a core ingredient for non-animal, lactose-free dairy substitutes. In the end, it’s all about lowering our reliance on animals and attempting to save lots of the planet — an issue of gargantuan proportions.
“Casein is the holy grail for the manufacturing of other choices that match standard merchandise in diet, style and texture, but it has remained notoriously tough to create,” Eric Archambeau, co-founder of Astanor Ventures, which led Standing Ovations’s funding, stated in an announcement.
Vegan pleasant
Standing Ovation is much from the one firm engaged on this downside — investors are salivating over companies such as Israel’s Remilk and San Francisco-based New Culture. Extra broadly, meals tech startups are engaged on all method of artificial protein alternate options, with lab-grown meat and seafood edging their way closer toward consumer markets. Then there are firms corresponding to Cultivated Biosciences, which are using funky new techniques to create vegan-friendly meals which have an analogous creaminess and “mouthfeel” to that of actual dairy merchandise.
The vegan meals market was a $27 billion industry last year, so it’s clear why traders are lining up behind all these firms. In actual fact there at the moment are devoted VC funds purely for meals tech startups, with France-based Five Seasons Ventures and London’s Synthesis Capital launching almost $500 million in funds between them up to now yr.
With $12 million in recent funding from Astanor Ventures, Peakbridge, Seventure Companions, Massive Thought Ventures, Good Startup and an undisclosed “main participant” within the meals business, Standing Ovation is now properly financed to develop animal and lactose-free substitutes for cheese and different dairy items. Certainly, product growth and R&D are solely a few of the hurdles Standing Ovation and its business counterparts must cope with — they will even must undergo stringent regulatory processes in every of the markets they need to make their merchandise out there in.
“Standing Ovation’s expertise has an incredible potential; nevertheless, bringing the merchandise quickly to market requires vital assets, and substantial funding had develop into mandatory,” CEO Frederic Paques stated.
The corporate stated that it expects to enter its commercialization section in 2024.
Leave a Reply