Phytolon, an Israel-based biotech startup that develops fermentation-based natural food colours, has scored $14.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by DSM Venturing (which invested in Inne) along with participation from Cibus Fund, Ginkgo Bioworks (in-kind investment in the form of Foundry services) and The Trendlines Agrifood Fund.
Some of Phytolon‘s current shareholders, including The Trendlines Group (the largest shareholder in the company), Arkin Holdings, Millennium Foodtech, Agriline (administered by Consensus Business Group), Stern Tech, and OpenValley/Yossi Ackerman also took part in the round.
The financing will be used to further progress its technology towards commercialisation of its products.
Dr. Halim Jubran, Co-founder and CEO of Phytolon, said: “The investments of DSM Venturing, Cibus Fund, and Ginkgo Bioworks open the door for broad penetration of our products in the global food industry. We are excited to have new investors who share our vision to create healthy, efficient, and sustainable food systems via biotechnology.”
Phytolon’s Board of Directors is chaired by Steve Dubin, added: “I believe this investment round and DSM’s participation in Phytolon will accelerate the commercialization of Phytolon’s proprietary palette of sustainable food colors that will provide important benefits to both food producers and consumers.”
Revolutionises food colouring industry
Currently, natural food colours are agriculture-dependent and mostly derived from fruit and vegetables. The need for new natural food colours is increasing due to growing consumer awareness and demands for healthier food colours to replace the synthetics that may have adverse effects on the consumers’ health.
Phytolon was founded in 2018 by Guy Polturak, Halim Jubran and Tal Zeltzer in Israel to revolutionise the industry and address the need for healthy, efficient, and sustainable natural food-colouring alternatives. It is based on licensed technology through the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Phytolon’s novel technology
It leverages a novel technology to produce betalain pigments by fermentation of baker’s yeast. It offers a wide range of natural colors from yellow to purple, at competitive coloring performance and cost-in-use, for multiple food categories like alternative meat, dairy, frozen products, baked goods, confectionery, and snacks.
Fermentation harnesses safe microbes to manufacture food ingredients in a consistent, sustainable and cost-efficient manner. With increasing regulatory acceptance and the highly sustainable approach of reducing carbon footprint by replacing agriculture with cleaner technologies, fermentation is designated to become the ingredient engine of the future.
Phytolon’s technology has already reached a semi-industrial production scale and the company has prepared the ground for regulatory clearances in the USA and Europe.
