[Funding alert] Zurich-based Cultivated Biosciences Secures €4.6 Million in Seed Funding

With its fermentation-derived creamy ingredient, Cultivated Biosciences hopes to bridge the gap between traditional dairy and dairy substitutes. The investment round attracted a select group of investors, demonstrating the broad support for the company's goal.

The financing round was headed by Navus Ventures, a Dutch venture capital firm that supports sustainable food and energy systems. Along with Lukas Böni, the founder of Planted, and other early investors, Founderful (formerly known as Wingman Ventures), a Swiss tech venture capital firm, showed their continued faith in Cultivated Biosciences by making a significant contribution in this round.

The company's noteworthy advancements since its $1.5 million pre-seed investment in September 2022 convinced US-based Joyful VC, Mandi Ventures, and Zürcher Kantonalbank to become new investors, who were also brought on board by this round.

Reflecting on the successful funding round, Cultivated Biosciences’ CEO Tomas Turner stated: “This funding validates our innovative approach and enables us to introduce our revolutionary yeast cream to the market.

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In addition to lowering CO2 emissions from the dairy industry, our goal is to attract traditional dairy consumers to alternative dairy products and capitalize on their multibillion dollar market.

The dairy-free industry has grown and innovated a lot in the last few years. Consumers are not persuaded by the products despite numerous attempts to imitate the dairy experience by combining plant-based proteins with vegetable oils and chemicals like texturizers and emulsifiers.

Because chemicals and exotic oils are employed, they also fall short of expectations in terms of sustainability and health. Yeast-derived cream from Cultivated Biosciences provides a healthy and sustainable alternative. This cream is an essential ingredient that mimics the color, texture, and creamy feel of typical dairy cream. This ingredient removes additives, enhances the texture and stability of dairy-free products, and has no effect on taste.

Similar to dairy cream, yeast cream is a naturally occurring emulsion that is made from a particular strain of oleaginous yeast. In addition to developing original, proprietary technology, Cultivated Biosciences has a patent on yeast cream.

Yeast biomass fermentation, which is different from precision fermentation in that it is non-GMO, less expensive, and easier to scale, is used in the production process. It is not meant to be a molecular copy of dairy cream. Rather, it attains equivalence between function and sense.

The yeast cream has a microstructure of yeast lipid droplets that mimic milk fat droplets and is composed entirely of yeast-derived fats, proteins, and fibers. This ingredient is intended for incorporation into finished consumer goods, and Cultivated Biosciences intends to provide it to the culinary and food industries via a business-to-business (B2B) model.

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Eduard Meijer, Managing Director of Navus Ventures, added: “This dairy-free cream with great taste, mouthfeel, versatility, and functionality can significantly improve alternative dairy, with a technology that has the potential to scale economically. We are excited to team up to help them make these products commonplace, catering to diverse consumer preferences”

About Cultivated Biosciences

Cultivated Biosciences, a pioneering Swiss biotech food startupAlthough they are becoming more popular, plant-based substitutes are not as popular with consumers because they lack the creaminess that comes from having fat as a primary ingredient. They at Cultivated want to make this right. They are working on creating an emulsion made of yeast that allows for clean labeling and provides the creaminess required for plant-based dairy.