VTT spinout Solar Foods, developer of a method of creating protein from air, has increased a series A round led by strategic partner Fazer Group to $20.7m.
Solar Foods, a Finland-based protein powder developer spun out of VTT Technical Research Center of Finland and Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT), has raised €18.5m ($20.7m) in a series A round.
Packaged food producer Fazer Group has led the €15m second tranche and now owns a 15% stake in the company.
CPT Capital, the venture capital arm of Jeremy Coller’s family office, as well as VC firm Lifeline Ventures, investment platform Agronomics and a vehicle called Bridford Investments also took part.
The additional capital was added to €3.5m in convertible note financing the company raised from Fazer, Lifeline Ventures, family office Holdix and its Turret affiliate in September 2019, at the same time as it signed a strategic partnership agreement with Fazer.
Solar Foods is the developer of Solein, a protein it creates by applying electricity to water and adding microbes along with ammonia it sources from the air. It claims the protein is far more carbon-neutral than animal or plant-based proteins.
The technology builds on research conducted at VTT Technical Research Center of Finland and LUT. Solar Foods has earmarked the series A proceeds for construction of a planned production facility.
Lifeline Ventures had previously led the company’s $2.5m seed round in March 2018, a round that included VTT’s early-stage investment arm, VTT Ventures, and Green Campus Innovations, a vehicle that backs LUT cleantech research at seed stage.
– A version of this first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
