Kinish raises US$3.1 million to expand rice ice cream sales and develop rice-grown casein

Kinish has raised JPY490 million (approximately US$3.1 million) in the first close of its Series A round to expand its rice-based ice cream business in Japan and the US while developing rice plants capable of producing milk proteins.

• Kinish secured funding from INSPiRE Mutualistic Symbiosis Fund 1, Shimadzu Future Innovation Fund, Obayashi and Canada’s Love Veggies Holding.
• Its commercial ice cream uses conventional Japanese rice, while rice-grown casein remains under development.
• Shimadzu will collaborate on analytical evaluation, quality control and measurement technologies for indoor cultivation.

The Tokyo-based company announced the financing on October 20. The investment will support sales of The Rice Creamery, research into molecular farming and indoor rice cultivation, and recruitment for management and business roles in both markets.

The Rice Creamery is already sold in approximately 500 Japanese stores. Kinish also reported sales through Washington, DC retailers and Meta’s DC office in October 2025. It has opened a New York office to support US production, expand distribution and build awareness of the brand.

The products currently reaching consumers use ordinary rice grown outdoors in Japan. They do not contain the casein-producing rice that Kinish is developing through its biotechnology program.

That distinction separates the company’s immediate commercial activity from its longer-term work on dairy proteins. Kinish is building a consumer business with conventional rice while investigating how specially developed plants could supply ingredients for a subsequent generation of products. Global Brain, which manages the Shimadzu fund, described this as an approach that began with early brand development while milk-protein research continued in parallel.

Kinish has successfully expressed casein, a milk protein, in rice. Its next development work will focus on increasing casein content through improvements to the rice varieties. The funding announcement did not disclose the current concentration or a commercial launch date for foods containing the protein.

Molecular farming uses plants to produce useful substances, including food proteins. Kinish combines that approach with indoor cultivation, using dwarf rice approximately 20cm tall that is suited to growing on multiple vertical levels.

Shimadzu said the company ultimately aims to use its specially developed rice in ice cream, cheese and yogurt. The analytical equipment manufacturer confirmed that casein expression had been achieved at the research stage, with product development still underway.

Its involvement will extend beyond financing. Shimadzu plans to support analytical evaluation and quality control of raw materials, finished products and cultivation environments, alongside the use of measurement technologies in plant factories. The collaboration draws on its existing work across food, life sciences and environmental analysis.

Global Brain said it backed Kinish’s combination of molecular farming and vertical farming, its focus on taste, and a management team bringing together food strategy, operations, technology and product development expertise.

The investor sees potential to combine milk proteins with sweetness derived from rice starch in future dairy alternatives. It identified creamy ice cream and cheese alternatives with a melting texture as prospective applications, rather than products already available through the current retail business.

Kinish’s work on indoor production predates the Series A financing. At its seed round in February 2025, the company disclosed a collaboration with Shizuoka University to develop plant factories specifically for dwarf rice.

That earlier financing raised JPY120 million, reported at the time as approximately US$800,000, from Genesia Ventures, Lifetime Ventures, Full Commit Partners and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital. It supported research into casein-producing rice, cultivation systems and the introduction of conventional rice-based ice cream.

The company had already selected short rice plants as the basis for its indoor growing model, seeking a production system suited to controlled cultivation. Its seed-stage plans also included developing rice varieties that could meet commercial production requirements.

In its latest indoor cultivation trial, Kinish reported harvesting 2,079.7g of brown rice per square meter over three months. This is a rice harvest measurement, rather than the amount of casein produced. The company’s next cultivation work will expand trial scale, develop methods for mass production and use growing data to refine cultivation conditions.

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