Israeli start-up Remilk has secured $11.3 million in an oversubscribed funding round, as it prepares for a global launch of its animal-free dairy products.
The company uses a microbial fermentation process to produce ‘identical’ dairy proteins, which can be used for developing products such as cheese, yogurt and cream.
With the capital, Remilk plans to rapidly expand its production and distribution capabilities, in order to meet the global demand for its animal-free dairy proteins. The lab-made dairy proteins are cholesterol-free and contain no lactose, antibiotics or growth hormones.
The latest funding round was led by Fresh.fund with participation from OurCrowd, CPT Capital, ProVeg, as well as food manufacturers Hochland, Tnuva and Tempo.
According to the tech start-up, Remilk’s commercial manufacturing and distribution partners use its functional animal-free dairy product as a starting material for large-scale dairy production.
“Today’s non-dairy alternatives address environmental and health concerns, but universally fail to create authentic dairy-based products, like cheese. We’re bridging this gap by making dairy products with dairy proteins, without needing a single cow,” said Aviv Wolff, co-founder and CEO at Remilk.
He added: “Our proprietary technology delivers the most authentic animal-free dairy product in the market today and is identical to natural dairy. With our new partnerships for production and distribution, we’ll soon be ready to reinvent this multibillion-dollar industry.
“Remilk is revolutionising the way we produce food around the world, and importantly, is creating a lasting and environmentally-friendly food system that takes no more than what our planet can give.”
Remilk claims that its animal-free products require 1% of the land, 4% of the feedstock and 10% of the water to produce than comparable dairy products.
Hochland CFO, Hubert Staub, said: “In fermented proteins we see an interesting opportunity to develop innovative and sustainable products. Remilk is the ideal partner for Hochland to jointly develop this new raw material base.”
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024
