Paleo raised € 12 m in Series A financing round

The financing round was led by DSM Venturing, Planet A Ventures along with Gimv, SFPIM Relaunch, Beyond Impact, and Siddhi Capital. The proceeds will enable the Belgian pioneer in alternative protein food additives to scale up production of species-specific myoglobin as a taste enhancer for plant-based meat and fish alternatives and scale-up its precision fermentation technology.

To overcome the environmental burden of conventional meat production, which comes along with 15% of the global greenhouse gas emissions, high energy consumption and land use change, the start-up has created a more sustainable solution for animal-free or alternative protein products. The company has solved the problem of insufficient taste and nutritional value and offers alternative protein producers a protein supplement that only makes up 0.1% of total protein in plant-based meat alternatives while making up over 80% of species-specific meat or fish taste. The key ingredient is myoglobin. With their fermentation technology, Paleo managed it, to let i.e. plant-based foods look and taste like meat or fish in terms of colour, smell, taste, and aromatic experience with nutritional value. Paleo declares that their protein products are 100% identical to animal proteins and 100% GMO-free because the microbially produced myoglobin is secreted and harvested from the medium.

With the financing Paleo wants to scale the technology and move into commercial production. In the next step, company persuits to reach the regulatory approval in key markets. The offered portfolio is of six different species (beef, chicken, pork, lamb, tuna, and mammoth).

“The market for plant-based meat and fish is ready to grow further, provided that consumers find the taste convincing. There’s only so much you can do with artificial coloring and additives,” says Hermes Sanctorum, co-founder and CEO of Paleo. Adding our ingredients to plant-based meat alternatives is a game changer that brings the experience of ‘real’ meat. You can smell it, you can taste it, and you can see it because our ingredients provide that vibrant red color that transforms into caramelised brown when you grill it, he added. And no animal is involved whatsoever defining our ingredients as vegan. It’s great that our venture round is joined by industry expert investors, who tasted our Paleo ingredients and are fully convinced of their potential.