US-based food ingredients company Motif Ingredients was spun out of biotech firm Ginkgo Bioworks yesterday with $90m in series A capital from investors including merchant firm Louis Dreyfus Company and dairy cooperative Fonterra.
The round also featured Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Viking Global Investors.
Motif Ingredients will exploit Ginkgo Bioworks’ platform for genetic engineering in order to create sustainable alternative proteins derived from egg, dairy and meat using biotechnology and fermentation rather than animal agriculture.
Clients will be able to outsource the research and development process for new proteins to Motif.
The company is the second to be spun out of Ginkgo Bioworks after agtech developer Joyn Bio was formed in 2017 through a $100m deal in partnership with Leaps by Bayer, an investment arm of life sciences company Bayer.
Ginkgo Bioworks itself is a spinout of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Judith Swales, chief operating officer, global consumer and foodservice business, at Fonterra, said: “To help feed the world and meet consumers’ evolving food preferences, traditional and complementary nutritional sources need to co-exist.
“As a global dairy nutrition company, we see plant- and fermentation-produced nutrition as complementary to animal protein, and in particular cows’ milk.
“Our partnership with Motif enables us to be part of this emerging area and help meet the nutritional needs of the world’s growing population.”
