Australian food tech startup Eden Brew has raised US$5 million in funding to assist in expansion and the retail launch of its animal-free ice cream range.
The company uses fermentation to produce dairy that contains all six proteins identical to a cow’s milk. The capital raised in this round will be used to scale its in-house milk product innovation and launch a new ice cream range within the next 18 months.
Eden Brew co-founder and CEO Jim Fader said the company is making rapid progress toward developing the “holy grail” of dairy proteins.
“While there are numerous milk alternatives, they cannot sustainably meet future demand and don’t achieve the sensory or processability properties of cow’s milk,” he said.
“Our natural method of fermentation future-proofs dairy’s place at every kitchen table, in every cafe, and every ice cream cone.”
The company has been backed by investors including Mars’ US-based Digitalis Ventures and a follow-on from Main Sequence.
Main Sequence partner and Eden Brew chair, Phil Morle, said precision fermentation is already enhancing food production and meeting surging protein demands at a lower cost with less impact on the environment.
He believes the innovation can improve the efficiency of current industrial food production and meet the demands of 10 billion people by 2050.
