EIT Food announces new investments into agrifood startups

EIT Food, the world’s largest food innovation community, has today announced two new investments in promising agrifood startups.

EIT Food is investing €400,000 in the Israeli startup MEALA, which develops functional ingredients from plant-based proteins using naturally occurring biocatalysts, enabling the creation of products which mimic the texture and mouthfeel of animal-based products and offer high nutritional value.

The second investment is a total of €500,000 in Green Spot Technologies, a French startup transforming plant-based side streams into highly nutritious fermented ingredients. Its fermentation platform enables the production of fermented and upcycled flours made from by-products – including pulps, peels and brans – of fruits, vegetables and cereals.

Both startups are alumni of the EIT Food’s Food Accelerator Network (FAN) program – one of three flagship entrepreneurship programs which support entrepreneurs and startups to launch, accelerate and scale impactful agrifood solutions.

“We are excited to have EIT Food joining Meala’s extraordinary list of investors," commented Hadar Ekhoiz Razmovich, CEO & Co-founder of MEALA. "This investment will help us to get to the market more quickly and better address the company’s specific needs for cleaning up labels and improving the texture and taste of plant-based alternative meat food products.”

The funding from EIT Food will support MEALA to continue the development of the company’s platform technology and accelerate its journey from lab to pilot. This investment will also support MEALA’s efforts to launch products in the US and European markets in 2024.

“The support from EIT Food contributes not only to partially financing the commercialisation actions of Green Spot, such as consultant work and prototyping, but also gives us access to an extensive and qualified network of corporates, investors and fellow startups," added Ninna Granucci, CEO & Co-founder of Green Spot Technologies.

EIT Food is supporting Green Spot Technologies to prepare its series A round that will start in a few weeks. This round will centre on the commercialisation of its lead ingredients by increasing its industrial demonstration plant capacity to 600 tonnes per year.

“We are delighted to announce new investments in two startups that are alumni of our Food Accelerator Network (FAN) program, whose solutions offer exciting potential to address several challenges facing our food system, including tackling food loss and waste and improving the quality and nutritional value of plant-based alternative protein products," said Benoit Buntinx, Director of Business Creation at EIT Food. “EIT Food continues to search for high-impact startups with an outstanding definition of their value proposition and proprietary technologies that can increase the sustainability, health and integrity of our food value chain.”