Pivoting from Plants-to-Food to Plants-to-X – What’s the future of Ag?

Food and fermentation

Now that we’ve looked at how a company like Sironix is taking plants and agriculture beyond food and fuels and into the realm of bio-X products that especially in a post-Covid world relies on safe and effective cleaners and detergents, we now take a look at food and fermentation. So if plants are being used for surfactants and detergents, what about plants for food?

Fermentation is showing the world we don’t even need plants anymore to get food. Alternative proteins using microbes, microalgae, etc. are taking off like a rocket on its way to the International Space Station.

The Good Food Institute just revealed a first-of-its kind report showing $1.5 billion has been invested in alternative proteins so far in 2020, including a record $435 million in the next pillar—fermentation-derived protein. This alternative protein—produced with microbes such as microalgae and fungi—has excited the world’s top investors and meat companies, including Bill Gates, ADM Capital, and JBS, and is enabling a new wave of innovative products like steak and bacon.

The report notes some investment highlights:

• Globally, fermentation companies devoted to alternative proteins received more than $274 million in venture capital funding in 2019 and an additional $435 million in the first seven months of 2020.
• More than $837 million in venture capital funding has been raised by fermentation companies, starting with an investment in 2013. Eighty-five percent of these funds were raised in 2019 and the first seven months of 2020 alone.
• Overall, the alternative protein industry raised more than $820 million in 2019. A further $1.5 billion was raised in the first seven months of 2020, which is already 80 percent more investment than in the entirety of 2019.
• Globally in 2019, fermentation companies raised 3.5 times more capital than cultivated meat companies worldwide and almost 60 percent as much as U.S. plant-based meat, egg, and dairy companies.

Investors in the space include Bill Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Temasek, Horizons Ventures, CPP Investment Board, Louis Dreyfus Co., Bunge Ventures, Kellogg, ADM Capital, Danone, Kraft Heinz, Mars, Tyson, SOSV, Viking Global, Thiel Capital, Generation Investment Management, Mayfield Fund, and Techstars.

Several of the world’s largest food and life science companies, including DuPont, Novozymes, and DSM, are also developing fermentation-derived product lines and solutions tailored to the alternative protein industry. Even JBS, the world’s largest meat company, is leveraging fermentation for alternative proteins through their new and mostly plant-based brand, Planterra Foods.

Some interesting fermentation food products on the market include the following:

• Precision fermentation: The Urgent Company’s Brave Robot animal-free ice cream, powered by Perfect Day’s flora-made whey protein.
• Traditional fermentation: MycoTechnology’s PureTaste plant protein, with improved taste and functionality as a result of their fermentation process.
• Biomass fermentation: Mycoprotein from category pioneer Quorn and new brands, such as Prime Roots and Meati.

Download the GFI full report here.

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