Chile’s Luyef Receives $1.25M to Develop Nutrients for Cultivated Meat Using Fermentation and Agro By-Products
Luyef (previously Luyef Biotechnologies), a biotech startup focused on cellular agriculture based in Santiago de Chile, has received two substantial grants totaling $1.25 million to accelerate cultivated meat production (detailed information about the grants below). The Ganesha Lab, LATAM’s global biotech scale-up for science and technology-based startups, announced the investment. Kris Blanchard, a biotechnology engineer from the University of Chile, co-founded Luyef in 2020, participating in The Ganesha Lab’s accelerator program …
GALY Raises $33M From Bill Gates’ BEV, H&M, and Inditex to Advance Climate-Resilient Cultivated Cotton
GALY, a plant-cell culture startup based in Brazil and Boston, USA, has raised $33 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing round to advance its proprietary platform for cultivated cotton from lab to pre-industrial scale. Additionally, the funds will support expanding R&D efforts to improve the quality of “GALY Cotton” and develop other sustainable alternatives to traditional crop-derived commodities. The funding round was led by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), with …
LATAM’s Mycoprotein Innovator ‘Typcal’ Secures R$250K From Brazilian Government
Brazil’s Typcal, a startup pioneering mycoprotein in Latin America, has been selected by the Paraná Anjo Inovador to receive R$250,000 in funding. A spinoff of Fungi Biotechnology, the startup was founded in 2021 by bioprocess engineer Eduardo Sydney (CTO) and food industry entrepreneur Paulo Ibri (CEO) to leverage biomass fermentation to develop a mycoprotein ingredient for food applications. Typcal was one of the 68 selected in the program’s first call …
Brazil’s First Precision Fermentation Startup Future Cow Prepares to Scale Up Production of Animal-Free Milk
Future Cow, a Brazilian food tech startup founded in 2023 by entrepreneur Leonardo Vieira and food scientist Rosana Goldbeck, aims to revolutionize dairy production with precision fermentation, creating real milk without cows. Considered Brazil’s first cellular agriculture startup using precision fermentation, Future Cow gained momentum through São Paulo’s Antler residency program, securing a $150,000 initial investment. Soon after, in a funding round led by Antler and Big Idea Ventures as part of …
The Live Green Co. Unveils Yeast-Derived Breast Milk Fat and Gut Health Postbiotic
The Live Green Co. (TLGC), a US food tech company headquartered in Boston since 2022, unveils two active functional ingredients developed with precision fermentation: GreenTAGs — an analog of human breast milk fat known as OPO — and GutRevyv, a postbiotic for gut health. Human milk fat, mainly containing Triacylglycerols or OPO, plays a crucial role in infant development and health: It benefits nutrient absorption, supports neurodevelopment, boosts immunity, favors gut …
Brazil’s Cellva Raises R$6.5 Million to Develop Cultivated Pork Fat
Cellva Ingredients, the first startup in Brazil to develop and produce cultivated animal ingredients, starting with pork fat, has raised R$6.5 million in its first financial round. Seed4SCience from Fundepar led the round with the participation of ProVeg Incubator, the Spanish fund Rumbo Ventures, and the Rio Grande do Sul angel investor network EA Angels. Cellva expects to close the round by March 2024, aiming to raise R$10 million. The startup …
Meat Giant JBS Begins Construction on $62M Innovation Centre for Cultivated Meat
JBS, the largest meat processing company in the world, announces it has commenced construction of Brazil’s first research facility focused on food biotechnology — the JBS Biotech Innovation Centre. Located at Sapiens Parque innovation hub in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, and scheduled to open at the end of 2024, the center aims to be a model facility to produce cultivated meat efficiently, scalable, and at competitive prices. “As a global leader …
Chilean Biotech Fotortec Partners with Sustainable Firms to Introduce Food Waste Upcycling Technology in Sweden
Chilean biotech Fotortec announces a partnership with Swedish consultancy firms A Better Future AB and Xylo Sweden AB to introduce its innovative food waste upcycling technology and mushroom-based ingredients into the Swedish market. Fotortec aims to redefine waste by repurposing food waste or by-products into new and valuable items. The company has developed a scalable technology for cultivating mushrooms using food waste. These mushrooms can be transformed into beneficial ingredients, including flavor enhancers, protein isolates, …
Brazil’s State-Owned Embrapa Develops Cultivated Chicken & Cell Biobank
The Swine and Poultry Unit of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), which is carrying out a study about cultivated chicken, has announced it is developing a chicken breast fillet prototype that should be ready for nutritional and sensory analysis by the end of 2023. Embrapa, established by the country’s federal government in 1973 for the sustainable development of Brazilian agribusiness, has been essential in Brazil’s poultry and swine production. With …
Chile: The Live Green Co. Reveals New Precision Fermentation Division
Chilean food technology-focused The Live Green Co. has announced the launch of a new precision fermentation division to address food safety, health and climate change issues. Together with its proprietary artificial intelligence and machine learning platform Charaka™, which researches and develops products and food additive replacements using only plants, it will develop licensed product formulations and cutting-edge scientific solutions in a faster, more cost-effective, sustainable and effective way. Precision fermentation …