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UK biotech company Clean Food Group has announced it has raised £2.3m to fund the commercialisation of its oils and fats alternatives technology.
The group, which is developing a yeast-made alternative to palm oil has secured investment from global food industry players, including Doehler Group and Alianza Team, listed food investment group Agronomics and AIM-listed health investor Seed Innovations.
Seed Innovations said it has invested £216k and now holds 5.8% of the firm, while Agronomics invested £700k and holds 4.3%.
This latest funding round gives Clean Food Group a suggested post-money valuation of approximately £22.3m.
CFG said the capital raised from this funding will enable it to accelerate the scale-up of its technology platform while advancing critical regulatory and commercial pathways.
It expects to complete a Series A funding in 2024, by which time the business aims to have validated the technology at a commercial scale and have a “clear line of sight to near term revenue generation”.
The business will raise funds at Series A to support the build out of a commercial scale manufacturing facility.
CFG has signed collaboration agreements with Alianza and Doehler as part of the funding partnership.
It said scale-up process with Doehler is now well advanced, with a successful fermentation run at 1,000 litres recently completed; the manufacture of product batches for the regulatory approvals will be completed later this year.
Meanwhile, it has strengthened its Operational team with the hires of Dr James Mercer, head of manufacturing and scale-up, and Andrea Cattaruzza as head of product.
Clean Food Group co-founder and CEO Alex Neves commented: “We are delighted with the rapid progress the business has made in the past year. The successful conclusion of this current funding round validates the important strides our business is taking in solving critical sustainability and supply chain challenges facing our food and cosmetic manufacturer customers.
“We are now in a great position to validate our technology at a commercial scale, advance our regulatory pathways and develop our growing list of commercial partners in advance of our Series A next year”.
Morning update
On the markets this morning, the FTSE 100 has opened down 0.4% to 7,496.3pts.
Early risers include Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, up 2% to €59.40, Naked Wines, up 1.7% to 72p and B&M European Value Retail, up 1.6% to 546.6p.
Fallers include Glanbia, down 2.4% to €13.86, Greencore, down 2% to 86.9p and Kerry Group, down 1.4% to €87.14.
The week in the City
A quiet week for company news means Kantar’s monthly grocery market share figures – and update on food price inflation – will take centre stage this week when released tomorrow.
On Friday the Office of National Statistics will release its monthly retail sales data for July.
Elsewhere, Glanbia posts its Q2 results on Wednesday.
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