Tate & Lyle Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of packaged food producer Tate & Lyle, has led an $8m round for US-based protein powder developer Nutriati.
Venture capital firms Powerplant Ventures, NRV and Blueberry Ventures also backed the round, which follows a $1.5m investment in Nutriati by NRV in 2015, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Founded in 2013, Nutriati has developed a method of generating protein powder from chick peas. It can be substituted for eggs, wheat, soy and milk and used as a vegetarian protein substitute in products such as snack bars or health shakes.
Most of the funding will support the commercialisation of Nutriati’s vegetarian ingredients, which the company expects to be available on a sustainable basis by the fourth quarter of 2017, with the rest of the capital going to support research and development.
David Atkinson, managing partner of Tate & Lyle Ventures, will join Nutriati’s board of directors in conjunction with the funding, along with T.K. Pillan, a Powerplant Ventures partner who is also the co-founder of vegetarian restaurant chain Veggie Grill.