alternative protein

Synthesis Capital – founded by two former VC investors at Jeremy Coller’s family office – has raised $300m for its debut alternative protein venture fund.

The round overtakes Future Meat’s $347m 2021 Series B as the biggest yet from the cultured meat industry and comes at a time of increasing momentum and interest.

The state passed a motion in March allowing cell-cultured meat producers to conduct tasting sessions, but sales of cultivated meat and dairy products are still prohibited in the EU.

The company’s JUST egg product is sold in bottles in liquid form and can be used to make a variety of dishes such as scramble, omelette and baked goods.

Evolving food production systems such as cell-cultured meat and novel uses of fermentation ‘are being combined with an entirely new model of production we call food-as-software,’ says RethinkX co-founder Tony Seba.

The agtech company chose to acquire the soy processing business instead of building out its own infrastructure to secure a faster route to market.

Remilk uses a fermentation process to produce animal-free dairy proteins and expects to launch its first products later this year.

The partnership with PeakBridge will seek to make investments of between $3m to $5m in sectors including ingredient innovation and farming technology.

The impact investor has previously raised a seed fund, a VC fund and created the LiveKindly Collective, a $1bn roll-up of brands in the alternative protein sector.

The alternative protein start-up has taken its total capital raised to $2bn since being founded in 2011 and raised $700m in 2020.