Wageningen, Netherlands-based Time-travelling Milkman, a food tech company, announced that it has secured €850K in a Seed round of funding from new investor Alianza Team and existing shareholders Oost NL, SHIFT Invest, and Oterap.
The funding will help the company to strengthen its team, scale the production, and expand the market entry of Oleocream, a natural, healthy, and sustainable creaminess solution.
Dimitris Karefyllakis, CEO and co-founder at TTM says, “We have a clear plan on how we want to achieve our ambitions with TTM. You can’t do this alone; you need partners to help you take the next step. Alianza Team, Oost NL, SHIFT Invest, and Oterap are now supporting us with knowledge, network, and capital, to optimise our production on an industrial scale and achieve all our commercial targets.”
The capital injection follows previous investments in the company in 2021.
Time-travelling Milkman: Future-proofing dairy
Founded as a spin-off of Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and Startlife Alumni, Time-travelling Milkman (TTM) has a mission to provide a healthy alternative to traditional dairy products.
According to the company, many plant-based dairy products currently on the market lack the taste, texture, and nutrition that consumers desire, which hinders the transition to sustainable diets.
Consequently, the company aims to make plant-based dairy products creamier, making them a desirable part of food culture.
Traditionally, fatty products such as ice creams, breakfast spreads, and cooking creams are made with dairy cream.
The company develops the same creaminess but starting from plant seeds.
A patented process converts seeds to Oleocream. When Oleocream is then inserted in products it brings the missing creaminess.
TTM produces nutritious fat ingredients through a process that extracts natural fat droplets, known as Oleosomes, from seeds.
These Oleosomes function similarly to milk fat droplets and allow Oleocream to be used as a dairy cream substitute in creamy and delicious products, with minimal environmental impact.
The investor
Alianza Team is a multinational leader in the lipid, nutrition, and frozen bakery sector, with over 75 years of experience. With operations in Colombia, Mexico, Chile, and the United States, the company has four key business units: Team Solutions, Team Foods, Team Caribe, and BredenMaster.
Luis Alberto Botero CEO and President at Alianza Team, states, “Alianza Team is committed to transforming the future of the food industry, bringing healthier and more sustainable food choices for our customers. We are excited to be investing in and collaborating with Time-travelling Milkman. We are convinced that our shared core values of innovation and sustainability will be the key to healthier, more nutritional foods to improve our food systems for future generations.”
Oost NL is the development company of East Netherlands. On behalf of the provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, the company strengthens the regional economy by supporting entrepreneurs contributing to sustainable innovation, investment, and internationalisation.
Carl Heijne, team manager of Food at Oost NL, says, “The protein transition is a major challenge of our time. However, existing plant-based dairy alternatives still have many disadvantages. TTM has an innovative solution on its hands. We’ve previously invested in TTM and the team has made great progress since then. Exemplary is that the world-renowned vegetarian restaurant De Nieuwe Winkel used TTM’s ingredients to create their dishes. We are proud that as Oost NL we can help further accelerate the market introduction.” Oost NL invests from the ‘Innovatie- en Energiefonds Gelderland’ an innovation fund for SMEs in Gelderland.
Read the orginal article: https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/time-travelling-milkman-gets-850k/
