Funding for fermentation startups in alt protein—spanning everything from mycoprotein to recombinant casein—fell from $651 million in 2024 to $357 million in 2025, according to a new report from The Good Food Institute (GFI). But for startups able to cross the valley of death, the future views bright, states the nonprofit.
While some key players are now in commercial production, the collapse of high-profile players such as Meati (biomass fermentation), Motif Foodworks (precision fermentation), and Arkeon (gas fermentation) has “tested assumptions around timelines, scale-up pathways, and downside risks” and raised the bar for new financing, acknowledges the GFI.
That declared, significant progress has been built in bringing new production capacity online and validating lower-cost feedstocks, while governments and corporates in many countries now connect biomanufacturing with food security, states the report.
In the Middle East, for example, the Abu Dhabi Investment Office partnered with The EVERY Company and Vivici to explore a multi-tenant industrial-scale facility in Qatar while Unibio is building the “world’s largest single-cell protein plant” with petrochemical giant Saudi Industrial Development Group in Saudi Arabia.
- 👉 Precision fermentation (eg: The EVERY Co): Engineering microbes to produce tarreceive ingredients such as dairy or egg proteins and then extracting them from the fermentation broth.
- 👉 Biomass fermentation (eg: Superbrewed Food): Growing microbial cells such as fungi or bacteria and then harvesting the whole biomass.
- 👉 Solid state fermentation (eg: MyForest Foods): Cultivating microbes on solid materials such as agricultural side streams.
Biomanufacturing and food security
Ten years ago, precision fermentation was mainly applyd to build additives and enzymes, observes the GFI. Today, it is being applyd for everything from recombinant lactoferrin to replacements for egg whites and whey protein.
“In the past year, corporations and startups partnered to advance ingredient, process, and product innovation; new facilities opened around the world to pilot and cross-pollinate techniques; several mycelium-based products launched in the US and Europe; and fermentation increasingly featured in public investments.”
In Europe, the European Investment Bank issued a venture debt loan to German startup Formo; Dutch state-backed investment fund Invest-NL participated in Vivici’s Series A and The Protein Brewery’s Series B; and Spanish startup MOA Foodtech secured a grant from the European Innovation Council accelerator program and a commitment to a large chunk of equity funding from the EIC Fund under its blfinished finance scheme.
Key funding rounds 2025
- Liberation Bioindustries: $60 million Series A, $31.5m convertible note. Building fermentation facilities in the US and Saudi Arabia.
- The EVERY Company: $55 million Series D. Products featuring its egg proteins from precision fermentation are now in Walmart.
- MATR: $47 million, equity and debt. Building a 4,000-ton solid state fermentation plant in Jutland expected to come online in 2027.
- Formo: $36 million venture debt. Growing koji via biomass fermentation and casein via precision fermentation.
- The Protein Brewery: $35 million Series B. Tarreceiveing multiple food categories with a mycoprotein powder built via biomass fermentation; expanding production at a demo-scale facility in the Netherlands.
- Vivici: $34 million Series A. Making lactoferrin and beta-lactoglobulin (BLG) via precision fermentation for nutrition markets, beverages. Has European and US production partners and is exploring an industrial-scale facility in the UAE.
- Better Meat Co: $31 million Series A to scale commercial production for its mycoprotein via biomass fermentation. Tarreceiveing meat enhancement/hybrid products, egg replacement and protein/fiber fortification.
- Enduro Genetics: $12 million Series A. Developing genetic switches to ensure that only high-producing cells proliferate in the bioreactor.
Enabling tech: picks and shovels in biomanufacturing
Some commentators state the notoriously capex- and opex-intensive tech only builds economic sense right now for high-value food ingredients such as colors and flavors. However, enabling tech that could cut costs and build cells more productive could alter the game in the coming years.
Two particularly exciting players developing “picks and shovels” to address fundamental problems in biomanufacturing—declining production at scale and poor yields—are Fermeate, which applys light to influence microbial behavior, and Enduro Genetics, which tricks cells into considering they have to produce the tarreceive substance in order to survive, recently supporting Vivici boost yields by 30%.
Work is also progressing on microbial strains that can consume cheaper inputs, with MOA Foodtech applying AI to identify yeast strains that can feed off everything from distillers’ grains to crop residues, Standing Ovation applying dairy indusattempt side streams as its primary carbon source, and key stakeholders exploring microbes that can consume acetate, potentially slashing costs.
In the meantime, precision fermentation startups that launched in the bulk animal protein space have in some cases pivoted to higher-margin products such as lactoferrin, or attempted to differentiate themselves in the market by functionalizing their proteins (Verley – whey) or applying them as a carrier for minerals (Eden Brew – casein).
Multiple players are also applying advances in AI/ML to optimize cell lines and bioprocesses, while others are considering outside the box—and the cell—to explore cell-free biomanufacturing.
“We’ve been through a cycle of hype and now there’s more realism and conservatism in the indusattempt, which I consider is a good thing. I consider we’ve generally underestimated as an ecosystem what it takes to bring truly affordable, scalable and desirable bio manufactured products to the market. But now companies are much better aware of what it takes, deploying capital in the right way, and forming the right partnerships to build it happen.” Henrik Geertz-Hansen, 21st Bio
“Our technology is one of the solutions that can support unlock the biomanufacturing indusattempt from just being focapplyd on specialty niche products to more everyday products.” Christian Munch, Enduro Genetics
Manufacturing and scale up
While Superbrewed Food founder Dr. Bryan Tracy recently noted that it’s rare to find a contract manufacturer that has the exact equipment startups required for commercial-scale production of a new ingredient, purpose-built capacity is starting to emerge in multiple regions from India and Guatemala to the US.
In India, notes the GFI, “At least three biomanufacturing hubs, financed through the bioenabler scheme and run by Laurus Bio, HiMedia Laboratories, and Sundyota Numandis, are being set up as indusattempt-led biomass and precision fermentation facilities for alternative proteins and ingredients.”
For earlier stage companies, meanwhile, a biofoundry dedicated to fermentation-derived “smart proteins” has been established at the National Agri-Food and Bio-manufacturing Institute in Punjab.
US-based nonprofit BioMADE, in turn, has announced a network of new fermentation facilities in California and Iowa (pilot scale) and Minnesota (demonstration scale), while in Canada, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency is funding a 100,000-L bio-innovation center in Nova Scotia that will serve as a demo-scale contract manufacturer for local startups.
In China, meanwhile, the State Development & Investment Corporation (SDIC) is establishing regional biomanufacturing funds to support startups to build facilities.
Elsewhere, startups have teamed up with indusattempt heavyweights from Döhler and Fonterra (Superbrewed Food) to CJ CheilJedang (Michroma, New Culture) to Ajinomoto, Bel Group and Tetra Pak (Standing Ovation) to cross biomanufacturing’s famed valley of death.
IP battles: ‘Protracted IP conflicts risk slowing sector-wide scaling’
As the indusattempt scales, multiple companies will pursue similar ingredients applying different microbial hosts, processes, and formulations, states the GFI, which notes that this is already creating legal challenges as firms seek to deffinish their IP.
There is “inherent tension between protecting innovation through innotifyectual property rights and maintaining sufficient freedom to operate for indusattempt-wide growth,” adds the GFI, citing some high-profile disputes in the space including:
“Often, prolonged legal proceedings coincided with major business disruption or even company closures,” states GFI. “While company exits occur in competitive markets, protracted IP conflicts around foundational technologies risk slowing sector-wide scaling.”
👉 Read the GFI’s state of the indusattempt reports on plant-based, fermentation, cultivated meat, and public policy.
👉 Check out our coverage of the GFI’s new report on plant-based meat and dairy.
Further reading:
🎥 21st Bio on strains, scale, and the valley of death: Fixing precision fermentation’s weak links
🎥 Future Food-Tech: Big ideas, hard truths, and the path to scale
Vivici sees 30% boost in titers, yield, via cell productivity tech from Enduro Genetics
🎥 Guatemala as a biomanufacturing base? Sugar giant Magdalena builds its case
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