Global leader in alternative protein and ingredient industry investments, Big Idea Ventures, announced today its first New Protein Fund II (NPF II) accelerator company investments in Paris and New York. As part of its bi-annual new protein accelerator program, ten early-stage startups were selected for pre-seed investment.
“The ten companies in our first NPF II cohort are supported by outstanding innovators and creative thinkers. We aim to identify and support companies in this ecosystem that can bring forward the next generation of alternative protein leaders,” said Andrew D. Ive, Founder of Big Idea Ventures. He added that these companies are evidence of the range of the alternative protein industry beyond meat applications, and how enabling technologies, fats applications, and biomaterials are helping companies grow and scale more rapidly.
The New York accelerator program includes startups like Brazil’s Future Cow, which is the country’s first cellular agriculture startup using precision fermentation for alternative dairy. Other investments include Harvest Moon Foods from Canada, Naturannova from Chile, and US-based Pioneer Biolabs and SoundEats.
“The cohort represents the true diversity of innovation happening across the Americas! With representation from two Latin American countries, including our first investment in Brazil, we are excited to see the continued maturation of the industry across multiple geographies,” said Caroline Mak, Senior Program Director New York.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the Paris accelerator program features startups such as New Wave Biotech from the UK, Perfat Technologies from Finland, PFx Biotech from Portugal, Yeastime from Italy, and Zymoscope from Denmark.
“This is the first time that we have only B2B companies in the same cohort. They are working on functional ingredients, fermentation platforms, hardware, software, to accelerate the go-to-market of alternative proteins with more scalable, affordable, and tastier products,” said Marion Bazille, Program Director Paris.
This latest round of investments brings Big Idea Ventures’ total early-stage investments in the alternative protein and ingredient categories to over 110. Furthermore, this round marks the first time the venture fund has invested in startups from Italy, Denmark, Finland, Portugal, and Brazil, raising the total number of countries in which Big Idea Ventures has invested to 30.
Further investments are being made through Big Idea Ventures’ Singapore office, with the selected companies to be announced soon.
Image provided by Big Idea Ventures
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