Wageningen-based NoPalm Ingredients, a pioneering Dutch biotechnology company producing yeast oils, announced the successful closure of a €5 million seed funding round. The investment was led by Rubio Impact Ventures, and co-led by Oost NL, Fairtree Elevant Ventures, and family office Willow Capital Investments with participation from The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and other private investors. The investment will accelerate the company’s mission to provide a local, circular, and sustainable solution for the global palm oil market.
Founded in 2021 by Lars Langhout and Professor Dr. Jeroen Hugenholtz, NoPalm Ingredients aims to address the environmental and supply chain challenges of conventional palm oil, which is found in 60% of supermarket products.
Lars Langhout, CEO & Co-founder of NoPalm Ingredients, said: “Palm oil is cheap, incredibly versatile and widely used in almost every fast-moving consumer good, from your toothpaste to my newborn’s infant formula. The problem is that global demand for palm oil grows by 4% annually, and there’s no strategy to meet the additional 22 million tons needed by 2030 without clearing rainforests 1.5 times the size of Ireland. With new regulations banning deforestation-related products, European companies can only source sustainably certified palm oil, which excludes 83% of current supplies. This will drive price increases that will affect every family in Europe. Often, the answer isn’t to prohibit a product but to step back and create a superior alternative that naturally compels a switch. This funding is pivotal for us to demonstrate large-scale production and solidify our role as a trusted partner in the food and personal care industries. We are on track for industrialization and commercialization in 2025.”
NoPalm Ingredients employs a unique fermentation process using non-GMO proprietary yeasts combined with a patented low-capex technology. This process transforms upcycled, locally-sourced agri-food sidestreams, such as potato peels and whey permeate, into yeast oils. Feedback from customers indicates that NoPalm Ingredients’ oils are an ideal drop-in replacement for palm oil, requiring no recipe reformulation and achieving price parity. This is made possible by the use of agri-food sidestreams and an asset-light technology that is quick to scale. Additionally, the technology also boasts a 90% reduction in CO2 emissions and a 99% decrease in land use compared to traditional palm oil production. NoPalm has proven their oil quality with pilot partners including industry giants Colgate-Palmolive, Unilever, and Zeelandia.
Tijl Hoefnagels, Venture partner at Rubio Impact Ventures, commented: “Rubio is excited to back NoPalm Ingredients’ mission to enable palm-free and sustainable alternatives for billions of everyday supermarket products. Palm oil driven land use change threatens catastrophic loss of richly biodiverse equatorial rainforests and is responsible for more emissions every year than the entire airline industry. Companies like NoPalm Ingredients are critical to preventing further pressure on our strained planetary boundaries.”
Maureen Haverkamp, investment analyst at Oost NL, said: “NoPalm Ingredients is a leading pioneer from the Foodvalley ecosystem that is shaping the Dutch and European alternative oils and fats landscape, to create a more sustainable Food system. Their business model is innovative and appealing to both suppliers and customers and has a clear positive impact on the environment. We’re proud to invest in the innovative team of NoPalm Ingredients.” Oost NL invests from the Innovatie- en Energiefonds Gelderland, a fund of the province of Gelderland.
David Evans, Managing Director at Fairtree Elevant Ventures, said: “NoPalm Ingredients has demonstrated the ability to make a cost-effective drop-in replacement for palm oil and other lipids that we believe will revolutionise the industry, address the massive environmental challenge of palm oil production and harvesting as well as solve myriad supply chain pain points for customers. Further, NoPalm Ingredients’ innovation allows them to upcycle industrial food waste streams which recovers carbon and creates value from waste, creating tremendous benefit. NoPalm Ingredients has demonstrated both the technical capabilities as well as the commercial partnerships to rapidly scale their technology and make an incredible impact across a wide swathe of industry and we look forward to support them on this exciting journey ahead.”
After a pre-seed round in 2022, NoPalm Ingredients has developed an in-house pilot line producing kilograms of oil per batch and completed several pilot projects with industry giants like Colgate-Palmolive, Unilever, and Zeelandia. The team is now gearing up for industrial scale-up trials to deliver hundreds of kilograms of oil for customer testing.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2024/07/dutch-startup-nopalm-ingredients-secures-e5-million-to-scale-sustainable-palm-oil-alternative/
