[Funding alert] Swedish-based Ironic Biotech Secures €1 Million in Pre-Seed Funding

The proteins are produced through precision fermentation and may be used as ingredients in food or food supplements.

This Pre-Seed funding will be used for further ramp work, expanding the company’s patent portfolio, and optimizing the production process. The team is now looking for partners in the food and food supplement industry to work with.

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Up to 25% of the world’s population suffers from iron deficiency. Lack of iron leads to severe exhaustion, fatigue, heart palpitations, learning disabilities, and anemia – symptoms that can be related to a mix of diseases or life situations, causing iron deficiency and anemia to go widely undetected, underdiagnosed, or completely ignored.

Dr. Nélida Leiva Eriksson, CEO and founder of Ironic Biotech said, “We want to help 2 billion people to prevent and recover from iron deficiency and anemia. The lack of iron is partly responsible for the performance gap between males and females, as women naturally lose iron regularly. The situation is widely unaddressed – a sad story that applies to many female health issues, iron deficiency not being an exception, I know what lack of iron can do to a person, as I was one of the millions of women suffering from it.”

Humans get iron from food and iron supplements, red meat being the most typical source of iron, as the iron in plants absorbs poorly. However, meat consumption is increasingly problematic due to its negative impact on the environment and individual’s health.

Louise Heiberg, Investment Director at Nordic Foodtech VC said, “New ingredients like this enable the food industry to tackle a global health problem with new products. Worries about iron uptake are also a significant barrier to reducing the use of red meat in the Western diet. Putting a fundamental innovation like this to work takes effort, talent, and a bit of time. As an early investor, we work tightly with the team to build a solid foundation for success,”

About Ironic Biotech

Ironic Biotech, sweden startup was founded in 2020 by Nélida Leiva Eriksson, who holds a PhD in protein design and molecular biology and has worked as a visiting fellow at Harvard and the University of Essex. In 2023 Nélida teamed up with Eskil Åhlin, who used to work for Sony as a global business developer, and Hans Holm, an innovation pioneer with more than 30 years of experience in the food ingredients and dietary supplement sectors.