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Cargill has invested an undisclosed amount in Glasgow-based alt-protein startup ENOUGH as an “add-on” to its recent Series C round and has entered into a commercial off-take agreement to use and sell ENOUGH’s “ABUNDA” mycoprotein. It was concluded.
Investment is “on top” [$43.6 million series C] Enough CEO Jim Laird said the “funds we raised last year” will give Cargill a “small single-digit stake in the company.” Agfunder News.
The ENOUGH facility in Sas van Ghent, Netherlands, is co-located with Cargill’s starch facility that supplies fermentable sugars as feedstock, harvesting fungal biomass (mycoproteins) and removing most of the water in a centrifuge. doing. The sugar-laden wastewater is then delivered to Cargill’s bioethanol facility next door in a zero-waste process.
ENOUGH, which is partnering with Cargill on the EU-funded PLENITUDE, announced that as part of the expanded strategic partnership, Cargill will leverage its formulation and application capabilities and portfolio of plant-based proteins, texturizers and fats to The two companies said they plan to jointly develop foods containing mycoprotein. consortium.
“ENOUGH will continue to benefit from Cargill’s global footprint and raw material technology expertise to scale up faster in Europe and beyond.”
Poultry-style products “key focus area”
Mr. Laird said. agfunder news: “Cargill has extensive in-house capabilities for applications. We are also interested in ABUNDA as part of an ingredient solution that can be combined with other Cargill functional ingredients.”
When asked if Cargill would act as ABUNDA’s distributor, he clarified: Our route to market is from B2B to CPG and Foodservice.
“We found that ABUNDA mycoprotein enables a better product in a variety of applications. We have real product quality differentiation in our chicken style products and that is our main focus. It has become a field.”
“Mycoprotein is an emerging ingredient with a disruptive role due to its many benefits including meat-like texture, protein profile, scalability, and sustainability.” Bergin Kose, Managing Director, Cargill Meat and Dairy Alternatives
Double production capacity
ENOUGH, founded in 2015 as 3FBio, manufactures ABUNDA from the same strain as Quorn (fusarium venenatum) by biomass fermentation.
Production began in Sass van Ghent last summer and is currently working on doubling production capacity from 10,000 to 20,000 tons per year.
Customers include Unilever, which is testing ABUNDA in its Vegetarian Butcher range. Dutch chicken processor Pulkon Food Group. Manufacturer that supplies British retailer Marks & Spencer.
Laird said last year that “we’re in good dialogue with some of our North American customers.” “But the bulk of the product will end up going to Europe, as it doesn’t make much sense to have frozen distribution across the North Atlantic” from a cost or sustainability perspective. ”
“What we’re doing is very scalable.”
While Beyond Meat’s dire financial situation and a spate of alternative meat start-up closures have dominated the headlines in recent months, “for every horror story in this market, there is also a success story,” Laird insisted. .
“My view of the market is that there has been a bit of a hype cycle, but the underlying trend is [driving alt protein] be. Currently, his one-fifth of Burger King’s Whoppers in Germany are plant-based, and one-third in Belgium. ”
“I’m not your average 25-year-old startup CEO,” added Laird, a CPG veteran who managed Quorn’s international operations from 2008 to 2011. “We have been developing this technology for eight years. It has capital costs, but what we are doing is highly scalable. 200,000 liters filled with water, sugar and micronutrients. When you inoculate a tank with fungi, they will double in size every 4 to 6 hours. After a few days, [critical mass] Then start harvesting continuously. ”
The whole food ingredients coming out of the fermentation tank can be combined with fats, flavors and binders such as potato protein to create a wide range of products, from “all muscle” type chicken substitutes to pork substitutes, he said.
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