There has been an ever-increasing global demand for alternative proteins. However, the infrastructure needed to produce the necessary ingredients is yet to catch up. Tackling this issue head on is San Francisco-headquartered precision fermentation platform, The EVERY Company which is accelerating a global transition to animal-free protein.
Now it has closed $175 million in Series C financing co-led by new investor, Prague-based VC McWin, and existing investor, Rage Capital. Other new and existing investors that participated include Temasek, Wheatsheaf Group, and TO Ventures. Marking its first investment in synthetic biology, Prosus Ventures also participated in the funding.
The Series C round raised by EVERY (formerly Clara Foods) was heavily oversubscribed on the back of strong investor appetite to fill the growing supply gap for animal-free protein and ingredient solutions.
Robust pipeline of animal-free protein products
The round brings the company’s total funding to $233 million. It will use the capital to scale production, commercialise a slew of animal-free protein products nationwide and expand into a broad array of new food applications. The company is also looking to expand its protein production platform by mining the egg proteome for novel, hyper-functional proteins.
“The global demand for alternative proteins has grown substantially, but the infrastructure needed to produce the necessary ingredients has yet to catch up. Our platform is a big step towards filling that gap,” said Katrin Burt, Managing Director of Grosvenor’s Wheatsheaf Group.
From science fiction to supermarket aisles
Gabriel Ruimy, Managing Partner of Rage Capital said: “It’s rare for a company to credibly claim to revolutionise a century-old industry. By leveraging precision fermentation technologies, the platform is bringing ingredient synthesis from science fiction to supermarket aisles, starting with egg proteins and enzymes.”
World’s first animal-free egg protein
Originally founded as Clara Foods in 2014, EVERY rebranded in 2021 to better convey its vision to bring animal-free proteins to everyone, everywhere. It has pioneered a disruptive advance in food technology by developing a platform that produces real animal proteins without the use of a single animal. Last year, it launched the world’s first animal-free pepsin with Fortune 500 ingredients company, Ingredion. Most recently, it launched the world’s first animal-free egg protein.
Retail debut in November
In November, it made a retail debut by announcing a limited time partnership with leading national cold-pressed juice brand Pressed to serve the world’s first nature-equivalent animal-free protein smoothie directly to consumers for the first time.
There has never been a better time to be a B2B ingredients platform, feels Arturo Elizondo, CEO & founder of The EVERY Company. “As the world’s biggest food companies work to evolve their product offerings into the 21st century by driving for cleaner, kinder and more sustainable labels, the options available are few and far between. We enable the world’s largest and smallest food companies to transition to an animal-free future –– without compromises.”
“Eggs are not only ubiquitous but they are also difficult to replace. Hence, we see tremendous potential in EVERY’s revolutionary technology. With the restaurant industry being one of the early adopters of new food technologies, McWin is uniquely equipped to support EVERY’s ambitious plans to bring its products to menus worldwide,” said Henry McGovern, founder of McWin Food Ecosystem Fund and AmRest, which operates over 2,300 restaurants globally.
The startup joins the race of food tech platforms working towards an animal-free food world such as Berlin-based Perfeggt, Simply Eggless and Eat Just from the US.
