US-based food technology producer Calysta collected $40m on Monday in a series D round led by diversified conglomerate Mitsui & Co that included agribusiness Cargill.
The round included Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek, Pangaea Ventures, the Municipal Employee Retirement System (MERS) of Michigan, Walden Riverwood Ventures and Aqua-Spark.
Calysta originally developed materials for consumer and industrial energy products, but has since pivoted to focus on a protein called FeedKind that is used as a feed ingredient for fish, livestock and pet nutritional products.
The series D funding will help advance commercial scale manufacturing of FeedKind. Mitsui will partner Calysta in marketing and distributing FeedKind to Asian markets, and will also assist in the expansion of FeedKind production.
Calysta announced in November 2016 that it is building a gas fermentation facility in Tennessee with the support of Cargill and other third-party investors which it expects to come online in 2019.
Hitoshi Kudo, general manager of the animal nutrition department at Mistui’s nutrition and agriculture business unit, has joined Calysta’s board of directors, as has Suan Swee Tan, managing director of investment agribusiness and biotech for Temasek.
Calysta secured $30m in a February 2016 series C round that included Cargill, Pangaea, MERS, Walden Riverwood, Aqua-Spark and Old Westburg Global Real Asset Fund, which is managed by multi-family office Bessemer Trust.
Walden Riverwood and Aqua-Spark had previously co-led the company’s $10m series B round in 2015 with participation from Pangaea and Calysta directors and officers, after Pangaea had led a $3m series A round in 2013 that was also backed by Calysta directors and officers.
– A version of this article orignally appeared on our sister site, Global Government Venturing