US-based synthetic animal protein developer The Every Company completed a $175m series C round yesterday featuring Prosus Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of internet holding group Prosus.
McWin Food Ecosystem Fund, a vehicle formed by restaurant group AmRest founder Henry McGovern, co-led the round with venture capital firm Rage Capital, investing together with Wheatsheaf Group, SOSV, TO Ventures and the Singaporean government-owned Temasek.
Founded in 2014 as Clara Foods, the company rebranded to The Every Company in October this year and is working on animal-free replacement proteins using its microorganism-based fermentation technology.
Company founder and chief executive Arturo Elizondo (pictured left) pointed out in a blog post announcing the round that intensive animal husbandry causes deforestation, species extinction and emerging infectious diseases, and is directly responsible for producing more greenhouse gas emissions than the transportation industry.
Moreover, Elizondo noted, the practice is linked with using three-quarters of the world’s agricultural land, generating one-third of the world’s freshwater pollution and the killing of more than 70 billion animals per year under inhumane conditions.
Every signed a strategic deal with BioBrew, a New Zealand-based fermentation technology developer incubated by alcoholic beverage producer Anheuser-Busch InBev’s ZX Ventures unit, in April this year that involves the latter helping it mass brew its animal-free protein.
The company also launched its first animal-free egg protein ingredient, ClearEgg, last month. Its total funding now stands at $233m, including a $1.7m seed round in 2015, a $15m series A the year after and $40m in series B funding in April 2019.
Plant-based meat and drinks were already popular in the innovation ecosystem, with companies such as oat milk producer Oatly and vegetarian meat developer Beyond Meat going public in recent years.
Multiple specialised venture capital vehicles have also been formed, by firms such as Lever VC, Blue Horizon Ventures and Big Idea Ventures, the last two of which are backed by corporate investors.
Cultured meat has been gaining traction, with companies such as New Age Meats, Good Meat, Aleph Farms and Meatable receiving corporate funding in recent months. Animal-free protein ingredient provider The Protein Brewery is another example.
Elizondo said: “There has never been a better time to be a [business-to-business] ingredients platform. As the world’s biggest food companies work to evolve their product offerings into the 21st century by driving for cleaner, kinder and more sustainable labels, the options available are few and far between.
“We at Every are perfectly positioned to enable the world’s largest and smallest food companies to transition to an animal-free future – without compromises.
“Now, our major objective is to scale the platform to make good on our promise to bring our proteins to everyone, everywhere. This new injection of capital will allow us to do just that.”
Photo courtesy of The Every Company.
