Food specialist Standing Ovation SA raises €12m

The company wants to use the assets to accelerate industrial-scale production of its vegan casein and milk protein derivatives. Standing Ovation’s business goal is to participate in the consumer hype on sustainable animal-free milk proteins.

Global protein demand, and animal protein in particular, is increasingly dramatically while livestock farming represents 15% of greenhouse gas emissions. Standing Ovation's ambition is to contribute to the agrifood transition by developing animal and lactose-free substitutes for cheese and dairy products, using dairy proteins produced by microbial fermentation. Thanks to a simple but innovative process, the company produces caseins, without any recourse to animal products. Caseins are not only the major proteins in milk (over 80%), but also the proteins that allow it to curdle and give cheese its functional melting and stretching characteristics.

Eric Archambeau, co-founder of Astanor Ventures, said: “Standing Ovation’s technology represents a paradigm shift for the animal-free dairy market. Casein is the holy grail for the production of alternative options that match conventional products in nutrition, taste and texture yet it has remained notoriously difficult to create. The founders’ experience in biotechnology enabled them to find the key to casein development, a step ahead of manycompanies.