Solar Foods receives Euro34 million in grant
23rd December 2022
("Agronomics" or the "Company")
Portfolio Company Solar Foods Receives a €34 million Grant to
Support Funding for its First Fermentation Commercial Facility
Agronomics, the leading listing company in cellular agriculture, is delighted to share that its Finnish portfolio company Solar Foods Oy, "Solar Foods", focused on commercialising its Solein protein made from air, has received a €34 million grant to support the build of their first fermentation facility and start preparations for their full scale facility. Agronomics has invested a total of € 6 million to date and owns approximately 5.80% of Solar Foods, subject to conversion of the outstanding CLN.
The full announcement is set out below without any material changes.
Solar Foods receives a €34 million grant to ramp-up Factory 01 and start preparations for Factory 02
Business Finland has approved a €34 million grant funding to Solar Foods. To date, this is the single largest public grant funding for cellular agriculture in the world. The grant is the first batch of funding for Solar Foods due the recent IPCEI notification.
In September 2022, Solar Foods was selected to be a part of the European Commission's strategic hydrogen economy core. Solar Foods' €600 million investment programme, which also includes the future Factory 02, was notified as a hydrogen IPCEI (Important Project of Common European Interest) project with a maximum state aid of €110 million.
In alignment with the R&D phase plan of the IPCEI notification, Solar Foods will use the grant to ramp up its hydrogen fermentation facility, Factory 01, and enter the engineering phase with the following Factory 02.
The 'hydrogen IPCEI' initiative is about research, innovation, and first industrial deployment (FID) of relevant infrastructure in the European hydrogen value chain. The grant decision announced today supports the first phase of the IPCEI project roadmap where the engineering, construction and ramp-up of Solar Foods Factory 01 is a central piece.
"With Christmas on the doorstep, we will see social media full of unboxing videos. For us, this grant is not a Christmas present but the result of one and a half years of negotiation and the hard work done by the people behind the Finnish innovation system", Pasi Vainikka, CEO and co-founder of Solar Foods says.
"The grant demonstrates how Finland's innovation system is ready to think outside the box and wants to support the commercialisation of scientific discoveries emerging from the intersections of scientific disciplines. We do not really fit into any single traditional research and innovation category: we do clean-tech, food-tech, hydrogen technology and on a systemic level support the restoration of natural ecosystems."
Solar Foods' Factory 01 has reached its full roof height at Vantaa, Finland, and process installations are set to begin on Q1/2023. Factory 01 is aimed to be fully operational in Q1/2024. The data and operational experiences from the factory are applied in finalising the engineering for Factory 02.
What is Solein?
● Solein is a microbial protein-rich powder that contains all the essential amino acids. It can be used to replace existing proteins in a variety of foods, for example in alternative dairy and meat, different snacks and beverages, noodles and pasta, or breads and spreads. It is the first ever novel food disconnected from the limits of traditional agriculture. This type of production method has the potential to transform the sustainability, availability and transparency of what we eat and where food can be produced.
● Solein is produced using a bioprocess where microbes are fed with gases (carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and oxygen) and small amounts of nutrients. The bioprocess resembles winemaking, with carbon dioxide and hydrogen replacing sugar as the source of carbon and energy, respectively.
● Solein is 65-70% protein, 5-8% fat, 10-15% dietary fibres and 3-5% mineral nutrients. The macronutrient composition of Solein cells is very similar to that of dried soy or algae. Solein provides iron and B vitamins and is exceptionally functional. Solein can be used with a wide variety of other ingredients: it vanishes into foods and doesn't change the taste of familiar, everyday food products.
● The production of Solein is not reliant on agriculture, weather, or climate: it can be produced in harsh conditions such as deserts, Arctic areas, even space. The process does not require animals or photosynthetic plants, making Solein the world's most sustainable protein.
● Solein will become available for commercial use for the first time. It is aimed at food brands looking for nutritious, functional, and sustainable protein ingredients of consistent quality that can be reliably delivered for their products. Singapore is the first market to grant Solein a regulatory approval, but Solar Foods is also seeking authorisations in other markets across the world.
● Factory 01 is Solar Foods' first commercial production facility, which will begin to produce Solein in 2024. Construction of the facility started in Vantaa, Finland during Q4 2021. Factory 01 will scale Solein production to a level where it can be brought to market for the first time. Solar Foods has plans to expand its network of production facilities in the coming years.
● Learn more about Solein at www.solein.com
For more information and requests for interviews:
Solar Foods Ltd.
Pasi Vainikka
DSc (Tech), CEO
pasi@solarfoods.com
+358 10 579 3286
Solar Foods produces protein using carbon dioxide and electricity. Solein production, independent of weather and climate conditions, liberates global protein production from the constraints of traditional agriculture. Solar Foods was founded in Espoo, Finland, in 2017 by Dr Pasi Vainikka, Dr Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, Sami Holmström, Jari Tuovinen, Professor Jero Ahola, and Janne Mäkelä as a spinoff from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and LUT University. www.solarfoods.com
Agronomics is a leading listed alternative proteins company with a focus on cellular agriculture and cultivated meat. The Company has established a portfolio of over 20 companies at the Pre-Seed to Series C stage in this rapidly advancing sector. It seeks to secure minority stakes in companies owning technologies with defensible intellectual property that offer new ways of producing food and materials with a focus on products historically derived from animals. These technologies are driving a major disruption in agriculture, offering solutions to improve sustainability, as well as addressing human health, animal welfare and environmental damage. This disruption will decouple supply chains from the environment and animals, as well as being fundamental to feeding the world's expanding population. A full list of Agronomics' portfolio companies is available at https://agronomics.im/ .
About Cellular Agriculture
Cellular Agriculture is the production of agriculture products directly from cells, as opposed to raising an animal for slaughter, or growing crops. This encompasses cell culture to produce cultivated meat and materials, and fermentation processes that harness a combination of molecular biology, synthetic biology, tissue engineering and biotechnology to massively simplify production methods in a sustainable manner.
Over the coming decades, the source of the world's food supply traditionally derived from conventional agriculture is going to change dramatically. We have already witnessed the first wave of this shift with the consumer adoption of plant-based alternative proteins but today, we are on the cusp of an even bigger wave of change. This is being facilitated by advances in cellular agriculture. This change is necessary, given scientists claims that if we maintain existing animal protein consumption patterns, then we will not meet the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to 1.5℃'
AT Kearney, a global consultancy firm, projects that cultivated meat's market share will reach 35% by 2040. This combined with the Good Food Institute's estimate that a US $1.8 trillion investment will be required in order to produce just 10% of the world's protein using this technology, means that we are on the cusp of a multi-decade flow of capital to build out manufacturing facilities. Funding in the field of cellular agriculture is accelerating, however still less than US$ 4 billion has been invested worldwide since the industry's inception in 2016.
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