Cultimate Foods raises €2.3 million seed funding from leading biotech and food-tech investors

Cultimate Foods, a biotech startup based in Berlin’s Biocube and Hannover (Institut für Technische Chemie, Leibniz Universität Hannover), has successfully closed its seed round to scale up production processes, expand commercial collaborations and operation.

The €2.3 million round was led by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), one of Europe’s leading seed investors. HTGF was joined by the Life Science ValleyWachstumsfonds, b.value AG and Kale United. Leading global Foodtech investor Big Idea Ventures also participated in this round.

Cultimate Foods creates a game-changing alternative fat ingredient to bring the authentic meaty experience to plant-based products. While there are lots of plant-based meat products available on supermarket shelves, taste remains the top consumer barrier to the adoption of these sustainable alternatives. Cultimate Foods is a B2B partner in supplying cell-cultivated premium fat ingredient to the alternative meat industry to tackle this problem. The company already run several commercial pilots with the food industry leaders.

Cultimate Foods began its first steps in Göttingen at the Life Science Factory, where it could start its research directly in the well-equipped laboratories right after the pre-seed round.

"Science is the key to addressing many of the problems caused by the food industry," stated Eugenia Sagué, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Cultimate Foods. "Through innovative technology, we can deliver the meaty flavors consumers crave while simultaneously cutting down on unethical intensive animal farming and tackling climate change by reducing CO2-emissions. Follow your passion and make the world a better place!"

"In a short time, Cultimate Foods was able to achieve significant milestones, establish strong ties with the foodtech industry and cooperations with universities," added Tilmann Petersen, Investment Manager at HTGF. "HTGF is excited to tap into a new investment vertical and support Cultimate Foods in revolutionizing the alternative meat industry with its cell-cultivated fat ingredient. In the food industry we have the chance to create a real impact.“

"As one of the most active investors in the agrifood-tech space, we view fat innovation as essential for enhancing the taste, health profile, sustainability, and scalability of sustainable foods," stated Caroline Mak, Senior Director at Big Idea Ventures. "And as early pre-seed investors in Cultimate who have seen the team grow from strength to strength, we are excited to continue to support Cultimate in this successful seed round for the launch of their innovative fat ingredient."

"Closing the seed round in today’s fundraising environment validates the achievements of our technological approach and the efforts of our team," concluded George Zheleznyi, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Cultimate Foods. "With a consortium of experienced Biotech and Foodtech funds on board, we look forward to benefit from both areas of expertise when scaling up to the next TRL and entering our first markets."