AUSTRALIA – Eden Brew, an Australian food tech startup, has announced a raise of $5 million (US$ 3.6million) to scale its precision fermentation milk production and launch its new ice cream brand.
The investment was made by its existing backer Main Sequence, the venture capitalist arm of CSIRO, with funding from the US-based Digitalis Ventures, which is linked to the global food business, Mars.
Eden Brew which was launched in 2021 said it had pioneered a way of creating dairy milk using precision fermentation rather than the traditional four-legged bovine supplier.
Using science from CSIRO, it has found a way of creating casein micelles without the cow that is the same proteins found in cow’s milk.
Most of the protein in cow’s milk forms into tiny cages called micelles and these cages are loaded with calcium designed to deliver nutrients as well as give milk its unique characteristics, including its white color, the company added.
Eden Brew CEO and co-owner Jim Fader said: “We have plans to launch regionally in Australia, demonstrate that and de-risk it, and then write a large contract for large capacity over a long period and run as fast as we can.”
We have the opportunity to present ourselves to prospective industrial fermenters by calling it anchor tenants of their capacity.”
Main Sequence Partner and Eden Brew chair, Phil Morle, believes in order to make a profound impact on the world and what people eat, companies need to tap into technology and science.
He added that when Eden Brew builds with biology, it can make nature-identical building blocks without the animal, at lower cost with less environmental impact, and still meet surging protein demand.
Precision fermentation is already enhancing food production, not just in cost, but in sustainability and supply chain resilience.
Its wide adoption will be an improvement in the efficiency of current industrial food production which is expected to meet the demand of 10 billion people by 2050.
Morle affirmed that Eden Brew has the potential to achieve its goals in just a short period, and all the partners will support the company as it takes one step closer to launching the product.
Eden Brew is fighting its position among the likes of Australian All G Foods, which is also working on cow-free dairy milk while developing a plant-based retail brand.
All G Foods completed its $15.5 million (US$11.17million) seed raise to further its precision fermentation cow-free dairy technology as well as launch its alternative protein in September 2021.
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