Clean Food Group to scale yeast-based oils with £4.5m in the bank
Clean Food Group has secured £4.5 million from a group of investors led by Clean Growth Fund and New Agrarian, together with £700,000 in non-dilutive funding from Innovate UK. The London-based biotech will use the funds to accelerate the ramp-up of the world’s largest yeast-based oils and fats facility in Knowsley, Liverpool.
The backing is designed to transform the million-litre fermentation plant into a full-scale production platform for sustainable oils and fats used in food, pet food and cosmetics. The Knowsley plant, acquired in 2025 for US$20m, is designed to move Clean Food Group from pilot scale fermentation into sustained, commercial scale production of yeast-derived oils and fats. The company’s platform uses engineered yeast strains fed on food-waste-derived feedstocks to generate oils that can replace conventional agricultural fats in food, pet food and cosmetics, targeting a global market now valued at US$315 billion and expected to grow to US$524 billion by 2032.
In 2025, Clean Food Group’s CleanOil 25 received regulatory approval as a cosmetic ingredient in the UK, Europe and the US, giving the company its first established commercial route. The latest funding is aimed at scaling output, stabilising supply and expanding the range of fat intensive applications ahead of broader market adoption.
Tom Ellen, Chief Financial Officer of Clean Food Group, said: “We are extremely pleased to have the continued support of Clean Growth Fund and a new partner in New Agrarian, two highly respected specialist investors in sustainable food and industrial biotechnology.
“Their support, together with the Innovate grant, represents a strong endorsement of Clean Food Group’s significant progress and the scale of the opportunity ahead. The capital raised will enable the Company to bring on stream the world’s largest yeast-derived oils and fats facility and to deliver on our long-term vision for sustainable food manufacturing.”
Clean Food Group emerged from around eight years of academic research led by Professor Chris Chuck at the University of Bath and has previously drawn backing from the EIT Food Accelerator Network, Innovate UK and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. The company argues that switching part of global fats and oils production into fermentation based, waste-fed systems could help reduce pressure on land use and supply-chain volatility.
For the industrial biotech and food-tech sectors, the round signals that specialist investors are now willing to back not only early-stage platforms but also the physical infrastructure required to bridge the gap between lab-scale proof and true industrial capacity.
123rf.com/Paul Grecaud
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