Fermentation startup Farmless secures €4.8M Seed round for sustainable protein

This week, Farmless, the Amsterdam-based fermentation startup, has raised a €4.8 million Seed round, bringing the company's funding to €6 million.

Farmless' mission is to free protein production from animals and agricultural land by fermenting naturally occurring microorganisms on a renewable liquid feedstock derived from renewable energy. 

Its scientists have already created an initial product using its fermentation platform to develop meat, dairy and egg successors. 

Farmless harvests natural microorganisms after controlled fermentation, using a feedstock made from CO2, water, nitrogen and renewable energy – completely bypassing the need for agricultural land.

By using a feedstock that can be entirely made from renewable energy, Farmless can brew proteins with up to 5,000 times less land than beef. 

Adnan Oner, the founder and CEO of Farmless, shared: 

"In today's unpredictable world, where climate change threatens crop yields, our fermentation platform offers an antifragile solution for food security. 

This allows any country to take control of their protein production, without the need for fertile land. If we unlock the protein-producing powers of the microbial kingdoms, we can create a future worth getting excited about.

We can have an abundant, cruelty-free food supply and rewild the world, restore forests, all while drawing down gigatonnes of CO2 from the air. 

We're thrilled to have found investors who share our sense of urgency in creating dramatically better ways of producing proteins on a planetary scale."

The funding is co-led by World Fund and Vorwerk Ventures, with participation from Revent.
According to Dr. Nadine Geiser, Principal at World Fund: 

"Moving away from sugar as a feedstock for fermentation represents a significant opportunity to reduce CO2 emissions of fermentation-based food production. 

At World Fund, we only invest in startups with the greatest climate performance potential - and there is a significant need to reduce emissions in the farming, agriculture and land use category (FALU).

The FALU category is responsible for around 22 percent of emissions globally, but only 12 percent of venture funding for climate, so it's critical we back more startups like Farmless, which has the potential to reduce land use from agriculture drastically and to improve biodiversity globally."

Peter Schmetz, Principal at Vorwerk Ventures, added: 

"We're glad to back Farmless' approach, which leverages molecular biology, food science and physics to develop superior food products that outperform their animal counterparts on all dimensions with significantly reduced climate impact.
"We're convinced that the Farmless team will continue to pioneer in making the food industry more sustainable - one of our investment themes at Vorwerk Ventures."

The company will use the funds to build a pilot protein brewery in Amsterdam, develop its fermentation platform, and continue the regulatory approval process.

Lead image: Farmless. Photo: Uncredited.