Record funding for cheese without cow’s milk from the laboratory
The Formo team around the two founders Britta Winterberg (3rd from left) and Raffael Wohlgensinger (7th from left)
Those: I form
The Berlin start-up Formo produces artificial cheese with the help of microorganisms. Investors believe in a cow’s milk-free future. In the financing round, the founders even had to reject larger sums. Now new products are to be developed.
Dhe Berlin food company Formo has not only succeeded in making cheese in the laboratory. Now it has also set a new financial record: In the current Series A round, the equivalent of around 42 million euros, the largest sum to date for a European food start-up.
The news portal Bloomberg had reported first. Lead investors are the Swedish VC EQT Ventures, Elevat3 Capital, Christian Angermayer’s investment firm and the US fund Lowercarbon Capital.
At the beginning of 2019, the Swiss Raffael Wohlgensinger founded the cheese start-up together with scientist Britta Winterberg. At first the company was still under the name Legendairy. Wohlgensinger previously worked for the branch VC Atlantic Food Labs, the fund supported the spin-off and was the largest shareholder for a long time.
The start-up produces artificial cheese with the help of microorganisms. The company has developed a process for growing the milk proteins casein and whey protein in the laboratory. To do this, the research team identified the genes in cows that are responsible for the production of milk components and recreated them on yeast cells.
Initially, the company started producing soft cheeses such as mozzarella and riccotta in the laboratory. Next up are matured, harder cheeses such as an Emmentaler.
Formo founders had to turn down many interested VCs
Now the main thing is to bring the products onto the market, hence the high level of funding. In addition to the lead VCs, Lionheart Ventures, Happiness Capital and Albert Wenger and the existing investors Agronomics, CPT Capital, Good Seed Ventures, Grazia Equity and M Ventures also took part in the round.
The founders told the “Handelsblatt” that they could have collected a significantly higher sum and had to cancel many interested parties. The company intends to use the money primarily to build a pilot factory near Bonn.
At a later date, the company would like to outsource production to external manufacturers. In addition, the Formo team is to grow from 20 to 70 people.
Formo is pursuing an ambitious schedule: the first animal-free cheese should go on sale in just two years. By 2025, the company even wants to be on a par with cheese products made from conventional cow’s milk.
Until then, the products must be approved as novel food. This is a very time-consuming process, especially in Europe. That is why the Formo CEO advocates a faster process in the EU to the “Handelsblatt”: “Europe must not lose touch with important future technologies for the climate.”
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