Credit: Clean Food Group
EXCLUSIVE: UK biotech firm secures investment from the Clean Growth Fund to accelerate commercialisation of its low carbon fats and oils alternatives technology
Clean Food Group has secured a further £2.5m in funding to accelerate the commercialisation of technology that can produce sustainable alternatives to oils and fats using food waste, yeast strains, and fermentation, the UK-based bio-tech business has announced today.
The latest investment, which comes from UK specialist venture capital firm the Clean Growth Fund, brings total funding raised to date by the Clean Food Group to £13m, following previous backing from the likes of investment firm Agronomics and industrial food specialists Allianza Team and Doehler Group.
The global food system is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, as well as a raft of other environmental problems driving nature and biodiversity loss. Meanwhile, just under a third of food produced worldwide is estimated to end up going to waste. And vegetable oils such as palm and soy are two of the largest drivers of deforestation, together contributing to around 20 per cent of global deforestation. Production of oils and fats have also been estimated to make up around seven per cent of total global greenhouse gases alone.
Clean Food Group claims its technology can help tackle all these inter-locking problems by producing sustainable alternatives to conventional fats and oils that are 90 per cent less carbon-intensive and can be used as a drop-in ingredient in baked goods, confectionary, and cosmetics products.
The firm's proprietary technology platform uses scalable yeast strains and fermentation technology to provide the fats and oils alternatives, while using food waste as a feedstock, it explained.
Clean Food Group's CEO and co-founder, Alex Neves, said the investment from the Clean Growth Fund would help it accelerate the scaling up of its technology platform "while advancing critical regulatory and commercial pathways" with a view to having a fully funded commercialisation plan in place by next year.
"We are delighted to be working with the Clean Growth Fund team, led by Beverley Gower-Jones, who is equally passionate about accelerating innovation to help address climate change and to create a healthier, more sustainable, global food system," he said.
Launched in May 2020 to support early-stage green innovators in the UK across areas such as energy, buildings, transport, agriculture, waste, and water, the Clean Growth Fund has to date invested in 17 British companies.
Beverley Gower-Jones, founder and managing partner of the £101m venture capital firm, said the Clean Food Group boasted an "impressive team with a broad set of skills, and how established several significant industrial partnerships".
"Backed by a strong technical base, Alex Neves and his team are well placed to commercialise the manufacture of palm oil substitutes and therefore reduce the reliance the food industry has on the production of palm oil, an industry which is one of the main drivers of deforestation and a major contributor to global CO₂ emissions," she said. "We are very pleased to support CFG's development and growth."
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