Israeli fermentation-based natural food colors developer Phytolon today announced the completion of a $14.5 million Series A financing round led by DSM Venturing, with participation from Cibus Fund, Ginkgo Bioworks and The Trendlines Agrifood Fund. Existing shareholders The Trendlines Group, the largest shareholder in the company, Arkin Holdings, Millennium Foodtech, Agriline, Stern Tech, and OpenValley/Yossi Ackerman also participated in the finiancing round.
Phytolon’s proprietary technology is based on licensed technology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and addresses the need for healthy, efficient, and sustainable natural food-coloring alternatives to azo/synthetic dyes used in food and beverages.
Current natural food colors are agriculture-dependent and mostly derived from fruit and vegetables. Phytolon leverages a novel technology to produce betalain pigments by fermentation of baker’s yeast. Phytolon offers a wide range of natural colors from yellow to purple, at competitive coloring performance and cost-in-use, for multiple food categories like alternative meat, dairy, frozen products, baked goods, confectionery, and snacks.
Phytolon’s technology has already reached a semi-industrial production scale and the company has prepared the ground for regulatory clearances in the USA and Europe. The latest funding will be used to further progress the technology towards commercialization.
Phytolon cofounder and CEO Dr. Halim Jubran said: "We are excited to have new investors who share our vision to create healthy, efficient, and sustainable food systems via biotechnology."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 6, 2022.
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