Sunnyvale, California, U.S.A.-based NovoNutrients, which is pioneering a technology that uses microorganisms to convert carbon dioxide into protein for aquaculture feeds, has reached USD 9 million (EUR 7.6 million) in venture capital backing following a USD 4.7 million (EUR 4 million) investment from Happiness Capital.
NovoNutrients will use the funding to complete a pilot project intended to prove its concept of capturing emissions from industrial sites that produce large amounts of carbon dioxide, such as oil-, gas-, or cement-production plants, to formulate high-grade proteins for human and animal consumption, it said.
The company is planning to open its series A fundraising round later in 2021. It said it had already raised a larger, undisclosed sum in non-dilutive, corporate project funding commitments. Its other backers include E2JDJ, Marinya Capital, SOSV's IndieBio, the Grantham Environmental Trust, the Stanford Graduate School of Business Impact Fund, Purple Orange Ventures, and Joyance Partners.
Hong Kong-based Happiness Capital, a member of LKK Health Products Group, a Lee Kum Kee Group company, invests in seed- to growth-stage companies in the U.S., Europe, Israel, and China, with the goal of creating a global impact on trust, food, health, and climate change. It previously invested in Beyond Meat; Redefine Meat; and Evry, France-based Ÿnsect, a start-up focused on producing fish feed, pet food, and organic plant fertilizers from insects.
"NovoNutrients has taken major steps towards becoming one of the world's biggest suppliers of innovative protein ingredients by 2030," Happiness Capital CEO Eric Ng said. "NovoNutrients' uniqueness is the combination of its current focus on alternative protein, its use of carbon capture and inexpensive hydrogen, and its creation of a robust platform for making both natural and synthetic biology products. Beyond nutrition, we expect its platform to make other bio-based chemicals and materials. Its tech is exceedingly cost-effective and promising for addressing increasing global demand and greenhouse gas emissions."
NovoNutrients has been able to produce protein flours with amino-acid profiles superior to those from soy, it said. Besides potential use in plant-based foods for human consumption and aquafeed, NovoNutrients has a plan to produce materials for the cosmetics, chemical, and material industries.
"We believe we have found the path to high-value products and affordable industrial scale by using greenhouse gases instead of corn,” NovoNutrients CEO David Tze said. “We've prototyped protein-based products that have a market value 10x our original one, which was targeted at replacing ingredients made from wild-caught fish. We have been able to do that without increasing our cost of fermentation. We are rapidly accelerating to industrial scale. Our current pilot project is centered on a 1,000-liter bioreactor. Shortly thereafter, we will stand-up a 20,000-liter industrial demo."
Tze said NovoNutrients has the potential to reduce industrial CO2 emissions by gigatons. NovoNutrients Strategic Partnerships Vice President Kumiko Yoshinari said that impact could be multiplied through commercial partnerships and licensing of the company’s technology.
“By building NovoNutrients facilities at commercial scale on the industrial sites where CO2 and hydrogen are generated, we will be able to trial the technology with new partners. We could enter joint ventures or license the technology, which we've already done. That allows us to scale without making heavy capital investments,” Yoshinari said.
Photo courtesy of NovoNutrients
