Berlin — Culti­mate Foods, a biotech start-up based in Berlin Biocube and Hanno­ver (Insti­tute of Tech­ni­cal Chemis­try, Leib­niz Univer­si­tät Hanno­ver), successfully closes its seed round to scale up produc­tion proces­ses and expand commer­cial colla­bo­ra­ti­ons and operations.

The EUR 2.3 million finan­cing round was led by High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF), one of Europe’s leading seed inves­tors. In addi­tion to HTGF, Life Science Valley Wachs­tums­fonds, b.value AG and Kale United also parti­ci­pa­ted. The world’s leading food­tech inves­tor Big Idea Ventures also parti­ci­pa­ted in this round.

Culti­mate Foods has deve­lo­ped an alter­na­tive fat that gives plant-based meat substi­tu­tes an authen­tic taste. Although there are many plant-based alter­na­ti­ves on super­mar­ket shel­ves, taste is still the biggest argu­ment that prevents consu­mers from choo­sing these sustainable products. As a B2B part­ner, Culti­mate Foods supplies cell-cultu­­red premium fats to the alter­na­tive meat indus­try to solve this problem. The company has alre­ady carried out seve­ral commer­cial pilot projects with leading compa­nies in the food industry.

Culti­mate Foods took its first steps in Göttin­gen at the Life Science Factory, where it was able to get star­ted with its rese­arch imme­dia­tely after the pre-seed round in the well-equip­­ped laboratories.

“Science is the key to solving many problems in the food indus­try. With inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies, we can deli­ver the meat taste that consu­mers want, while at the same time curbing unethi­cal factory farming and coun­ter­ac­ting climate change by redu­cing CO2 emis­si­ons. Follow your passion and make the world a better place,” says Euge­nia Sagué, co-foun­­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor of Culti­mate Foods.

“Culti­mate Foods has achie­ved important mile­sto­nes in a short space of time, built strong rela­ti­onships with the food­tech indus­try and ente­red into colla­bo­ra­ti­ons with univer­si­ties. HTGF is exci­ted to enter a new field of invest­ment and support Culti­mate Foods in revo­lu­tio­ni­zing the alter­na­tive meat indus­try with its cell-cultu­­red fat ingre­di­ent. We have the oppor­tu­nity to really make a diffe­rence in the food indus­try,” comm­ents Tilmann Peter­sen, Invest­ment Mana­ger at HTGF.

“As one of the most active inves­tors in agri-food tech­no­logy, we see inno­va­tion in fats as criti­cal to impro­ving the taste, health profile, sustaina­bi­lity and scala­bi­lity of sustainable food. As early pre-seed inves­tors in Culti­mate who have witnessed the team’s deve­lo­p­ment, we are exci­ted to conti­nue to support Culti­mate in this successful seed round as they bring their inno­va­tive fat ingre­di­ent to market,” said Caro­line Mak, Senior Direc­tor at Big Idea Ventures.

“Closing the seed round in today’s fund­rai­sing envi­ron­ment confirms the success of our tech­no­lo­gi­cal approach and the efforts of our team. With a consor­tium of expe­ri­en­ced biotech and food­tech funds on board, we look forward to bene­fiting from both areas of exper­tise as we scale to the next TRL and enter our first markets,” said George Zhelez­nyi, co-foun­­der and CEO of Culti­mate Foods.

About Culti­mate Foods

Culti­mate Foods is a cellu­lar agri­cul­ture company that produ­ces plant-based alter­na­tive fat for meat products. Unlike other fat alter­na­ti­ves, the company crea­tes a unique lipid compo­si­tion of the fat that provi­des an authen­tic pork and beef flavor. The company has raised more than EUR 3 million to date and is supported by the strong life science inves­tors HTGF, b.value AG, Life Science Valley Wachs­tums­fonds as well as the largest food­tech funds Big Idea Venture, ProVeg Inter­na­tio­nal and Kale United. www.cultimatefoods.com

About the Life Science Valley Growth Fund

The early-stage fund for life science tech­no­logy spin-offs in Lower Saxony aims to exploit the local commer­cial and entre­pre­neu­rial poten­tial arising from excel­lent life science rese­arch and tech­no­lo­gies. It supports compa­nies in the fields of biotech­no­logy, medi­cal tech­no­logy, digi­tal health, agri­cul­tu­ral scien­ces and food tech­no­logy and promo­tes successful start-ups in tech­no­lo­gi­cal growth areas.

About b.value AG

b.value AG invests in DeepT­ech start-ups that combine excep­tio­nal foun­ders and ground­brea­king tech­no­lo­gies and offer solu­ti­ons for a sustainable world of tomor­row. The profound tech­no­logy exper­tise and many years of opera­tio­nal expe­ri­ence in buil­ding and mana­ging biotech and high-tech compa­nies enable b.value AG to iden­tify the most promi­sing DeepT­ech start-ups and to support them finan­ci­ally and stra­te­gi­cally in order to realize their full poten­tial. Its unique struc­ture and expe­ri­ence allow b.value AG to act both flexi­bly and for the long term.

About Big Idea Ventures

Big Idea Ventures is one of the world’s leading invest­ment compa­nies in the fields of food tech­no­logy, agri­cul­tu­ral tech­no­logy and mate­ri­als science. We specia­lize in inves­t­ing in the world’s most inno­va­tive and sustainable tech­no­logy compa­nies. We combine capi­tal and part­ner­ships to promote econo­mic growth and build new food ecosys­tems. By foun­ding and support­ing pionee­ring compa­nies, we want to reduce the climate impact of food produc­tion and feed the world sustain­ably. Big Idea Ventures has teams in New York, Paris and Singa­pore and has inves­ted in more than 110 compa­nies in 30 countries.

About Kale United

Kale United is a publicly traded holding company that invests in pionee­ring plant and food tech­no­logy compa­nies. The aim is to maxi­mize the impact and increase the finan­cial return at the same time.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds

The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start-ups with growth poten­tial and has supported more than 750 start-ups since 2005. With the launch of the fourth fund, HTGF has around 1.4 billion euros under manage­ment. The team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and start-up experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digi­tal tech, indus­trial tech, life scien­ces, chemis­try and rela­ted busi­ness areas. To date, exter­nal inves­tors have inves­ted around EUR 5 billion in the HTGF port­fo­lio in more than 2,000 follow-on finan­cing rounds. In addi­tion, the fund has alre­ady successfully sold shares in more than 180 companies.
The fund inves­tors in the public-private part­ner­ship include the German Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Climate Protec­tion, KfW Capi­tal and 45 compa­nies from a wide range of sectors.