Jellatech announces US$3.5 million oversubscribed seed round

Raleigh, North Carolina-based biotechnology company, Jellatech, has announced a US$3.5 million oversubscribed seed round to enable the scale-up of its cutting-edge protein manufacturing platform. Earlier this year, the company unveiled the addition of bio-identical human collagen to its portfolio, as well as to its bovine and porcine collagen. This fundraise will propel Jellatech forward in its mission to commercialize animal-free proteins for applications in healthcare, personal care, biomedical research, and the food and beverage industry.

“We are very excited to bring in new and existing investors, support and capital to realize the mission of our company," said Stephanie Michelsen, Founder & CEO. "We have demonstrated the success of our first proteins and now it is time to scale it up and push our technology and capabilities even further.”

This seed round was led by Nordic-based byFounders, which shares Jellatech's vision for transforming multiple industries through innovative and planet-friendly solutions. Other participating investors included Milano Investment Partners, Joyful VC, Siddhi Capital, Blustein and more.

"Jellatech’s technology unlocks a fundamentally new branch of the tech tree of our species: creating complex proteins from scratch, at scale, without having to ‘mine’ animal bodies," added Magnus Hambleton, Investor at byFounders. "Jellatech sustainably and ethically produces large, complex proteins at scale starting with collagen. The impact that this can have is going to be enormous.”

Jellatech is leading the way in developing innovative, bio-identical animal proteins that are produced more sustainably, ethically and reliably. The company's breakthrough technology has shown the potential of their first protein, collagen, to disrupt the global collagen market and significantly reduce the carbon footprint associated with traditional collagen production. Collagen is the first protein in Jellatech’s portfolio with more to come.

The funds from the seed round will be allocated towards advancing Jellatech's research and development efforts, scaling up its cellular agriculture processes, expanding its world-class team of scientists and engineers, and accelerating the commercialization of its innovative proteins. Furthermore, the company will establish key strategic partnerships to maximize its global reach and impact.