Food tech start-up Nourish Ingredients has completed a Series A funding round, raising $45.6 million (US$28.6 million). The raise was led by Horizons Ventures and supported by Main Sequence Ventures and Hostplus.
Nourish Ingredients specialises in making animal-free fats and oils for alternative proteins. It was founded in 2019 and has pioneered a yeast fermentation process that allows it to mimic the molecular structure of animal fats. This helps create better tasting and more sustainable non-animal fats for plant-based and cell-based food products.
CEO and co-founder Dr James Petrie said the funding would allow the company to fast track and scale production and product development.
In an op-ed he wrote for Medium, Petrie said:
We’ve made a significant breakthrough in the way people will taste and experience alternative proteins. At Nourish, through science and the process of precision fermentation, we build real animal fats that make alternative proteins cook, smell, and taste as delicious as the real thing, but animal free.
We zeroed in on the differences between plant and animal foods to identify the most potent fats and oils missing in the alternative protein space; the ingredients that make Wagyu steak so special, and ice cream so irresistible.
Our team then engineered proprietary precision fermentation strains that can manufacture these potent fat molecules at scale and give alternative proteins an authentic taste and experience, animal-free.
We believe we are only in the infancy of how big the plant-based and alternative proteins market can really become, and we are excited about the potential of our fats to make a transformative impact on their products.
Nourish Ingredients is the latest Australian alternative protein company to complete a successful funding raise, with alternative protein-based food industries are on the private equity radar, despite a cooling of the retail market this year.
Partner at CSIRO’s venture capital fund Main Sequence Ventures Phil Morle says it’s an exciting time to be a venture capitalist because there are big problems to solve and making enough food for 10 billion people while we’re running out of land is one of them.
At this year’s Future Food-Tech (FFT) conference in the US, research firm Crunchbase said US$12.8 billion was invested in food tech through almost 1000 deals in 2021, double the amount invested in 2020.
At Australia’s inaugural AltProteins conference in April this year, Australian Plant Proteins co-founder and executive director Phil McFarlane said that recent investments, like the $378 million from the South Australian and federal governments and private sector in a plant-based hub were welcomed and needed but were “a small drop in the ocean” compared to the ongoing investment opportunity needed to make Australia a manufacturing hub that produces high-grade plant-based protein ingredients.
Australian Plant Proteins secured a $45 million investment from global agrifood company Bunge in April 2021 and in March this year announced a $378 million joint venture with Thomas Foods International and pulse and ingredient supplier AGT Foods Australia, with major financial backing from the state and federal governments, to build three new plant protein manufacturing plants in South Australia.
Ingredient suppliers to the alternative protein market are also on the rise. Regenerative food company Wide Open Agriculture raised $20 million through institutional investors last December to develop Western Australia’s first oat milk manufacturing plant, and Harvest B raised $4.5million to fund its intelligent ingredient system.
Cultured meat start-up Magic Valley announced in September it is planning a $5m seed capital raise, while All G foods raised $25 million in August, with Agronomics Limited and its affiliate investment vehicle New Agrarian Company lead the funding round. All G also received a multi-million dollar investment from Woolworths Group’s venture capital and growth fund W23 in February in February.
Another Australian cultured meat start-up Vow raised $7.7 million last year in an over-capitalised seed series round Led by Square Peg Capital, with existing investors Blackbird Ventures and Grok Ventures (the investment office of Mike and Annie Cannon-Brookes), joined by Tenacious Ventures.
It recently opened its first commercial facility, with its first commercialised product launching in Singapore by the end of the year.
At the beginning of the year, one of Australia’s largest plant-based meat manufacturers, and first to launch a certified carbon neutral plant-based mince under its vEEF brand, Sunshine Coast-based Fënn Foods, had a $3 million raise with fund manager Bombora Group.
And as part of its rather active year in the food and beverage sector, Dr Andrew Forrest’s private investment arm Tattarang invested an undisclosed sum in the plant-based pioneering company ProForm Foods, which launched its first retail product MEET last year.
While in late 2021, synthetic biotech company Provectus Algae raised $11.4 million in a pre-series A funding round led by Hitachi Ventures, a joint venture between Hitachi and Vectr Ventures. Provectus specialises in biomanufacturing microalgae to produce ingredients for a range of industries and applications. Other investors were Possible Ventures, Acequia Capital, existing shareholders, and additional private investors.
Meanwhile, One of Australia’s most recognised plant-based meat brands v2food raised $78 million in a Series B Plus funding round last year as it embarked on expansion into China and South-East Asian markets. It has raised $185 million since it launched in 2019 and is now valued at more than $500 million. It was valued at $2 million when it launched.
