Cultivated Biosciences, an ingredient startup biotech company founded by Swiss entrepreneurs Tomas Turner and Dimitri Zogg, has just raised a $1.5M pre-seed round.
The funding will enable the growing team to further optimize its production processes, research food applications and start product development of its creamy ingredient for dairy alternatives from non-GMO yeast with their first clients.
The company’s financing round was led by leading Swiss venture fund Wingman Ventures and involved other leading foodtech venture capital investors such as Big Idea Ventures, Blue Horizon, Proveg International and the FoodHack syndicate. The round is also supported by other founders in the alternative protein space such as the CEO and co-founder of U.S.-based foodtech forerunner EVERY Company, Arturo Elizondo and Lukas Böni, co-founder of Planted who are both acting as advisors to the company.
“Fats are the next frontier in accelerating the world’s transition to an animal-free food system, and I’m thrilled to be personally backing Cultivated Biosciences and their approach,” said Arturo Elizondo, CEO & co-founder of EVERY.
Clean label
From its laboratories in Zurich, Cultivated Biosciences are developing a creamy ingredient from GMO-free yeast which offers the mouthfeel needed to make plant-based dairy an alternative for average consumers. The ingredient is clean label and has a sustainable production process. This way, Cultivated said it ensures that in the future “all consumers will be able to enjoy a creamy experience in a kind, sustainable and affordable way.”
“We are beyond excited to build a solution that will elevate the mouthfeel of the plant-based dairy category and ensure that it’s simply better and cheaper than its factory farmed equivalent,” said Tomas Turner, CEO and co-founder.
In 2023 the company will start testing its creamy ingredient with selected clients for high-value savory applications and is open to working with partners, especially from the Swiss gastronomy sector and the European and U.S. foodtech ecosystem.
About Cultivated Biosciences
Cultivated Biosciences is a food and biotech startup solving the problem of texture in plant-based dairy.
It is developing an ingredient from GMO-free yeast, which offers the creaminess needed for plant-based dairy to appeal to flexitarian consumers.
This ingredient has the same texture and color as dairy products, low lipid oxidation and natural emulsification properties.