TIDMANIC
RNS Number : 3343C
Agronomics Limited
22 February 2022
22 February 2022
Agronomics Limited
("Agronomics" or the "Company")
Agronomics Leads Onego Bio Ltd's Seed Funding Round
Agronomics, the leading listed company focused on the field of
cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce a EUR6.9 million
investment ("the Subscription") in Onego Bio Ltd ("Onego Bio"), a
company developing sustainable and animal free egg protein, as part
of a EUR10 million Seed fundraising round. Agronomics will hold an
equity stake on a fully diluted basis of 19.94%, and will have the
right to a board seat. The Onego Bio position will represent an
estimated portfolio weighting based on the Company's last reported
Net Asset Value of 4.21%. The investment will be funded using cash
from the Company's own resources.
Onego Bio is a spin-out from VTT Technical Research Centre of
Finland Ltd ("VTT"), one of Europe's leading research institutions.
The company harnesses precision fermentation to develop egg
proteins without the need for traditional agriculture, with the aim
of providing people with sustainable, delicious and animal free egg
protein. It was founded in Helsinki in 2021 by CEO Maija Itkonen,
CTO Chris Landowski, and COO Jussi Joensuu, after many years of
developing and researching their precision fermentation technology
whilst at VTT. Demand for alternative egg white protein continues
to grow, due to the environmental and welfare concerns associated
with animal husbandry, and continued global pressure on suppliers
to go cage-free.
Onego Bio was founded in 2021 and, as such, is yet to generate
revenue, incur significant costs or report its Net Assets.
The full announcement is set out below without any material
changes:
Finnish startup Onego Bio Ltd raises EUR 10M in seed funding to
commercialize a breakthrough technology to produce egg white
without chickens
The cellular agriculture spin-off from VTT Technical Research
Centre of Finland uses a commercially-proven Trichoderma technology
to solve environmental problems associated with eggs, one of the
world's most used animal proteins.
HELSINKI, Finland (22 February, 2022) The Finnish biotech
startup Onego Bio Ltd has announced the successful closure of EUR
10 million seed round with participation from venture capital
investors Agronomics Limited and Maki VC. Onego Bio's technology,
developed and researched at VTT, enables production of bioalbumen
with cellular agriculture means.
Bioalbumen is an animal-free egg protein, produced with a
specific precision fermentation process that creates identical egg
white protein without the need for animals.
The company believes that the demand for animal-free egg white
protein will be growing globally, because intensive animal farming
causes many environmental hazards, such as excessive use of land,
greenhouse gas emissions, water scarcity, and the risk of global
pandemics.
"We want to thank VTT and our investors for supporting a
technology that is part of a bigger wave of changing people's
perspective on alternative ways of producing food. The time is
right to spin out this technology and start manufacturing our
product, as consumers are more open to try products that are not
animal-derived," says Maija Itkonen, CEO of Onego Bio Ltd.
Global egg production has almost doubled its volumes during the
past 20 years and is forecasted to reach 138 million tonnes by
2030. At VTT, the team has developed a safe, sustainable and
cost-effective cellular agriculture method for producing ovalbumin,
the most abundant egg white protein. This biotech process, based on
harnessing the microflora Trichoderma reesei for protein
production, with the help of water, sugar and certain minerals, can
provide significant environmental improvements to the egg white
production. The team believes the chosen technology is superior
because of its efficiency and productivity.
Cellular agriculture uses microorganisms and bioreactors instead
of traditional animal farming. The method can be compared to beer
production, in which microorganism is fed sugar to produce
alcohol.
"VTT's laboratories and technical teams have cutting-edge
know-how to develop truly new innovations. We will continue working
together with them on the scientific aspects, and together with our
investors we simultaneously focus on commercializing the
technology," Itkonen continues.
Onego Bio Ltd will focus on building its pilot production in
Finland during the coming years and acquiring the necessary
commercial approvals for its first product, animal-free bioalbumen
powder. The product will be first marketed in the United States,
where the regulatory landscape allows for faster market entry.
Onego Bio Ltd is planning to market the product as a food
ingredient for the bakery and confectionary industry, as well as a
protein supplement for fitness products, and later enter the
consumer market with its own branded products for baking and
cooking.
"We have a big mission: We want to rethink eggs and give people
access to a delicious healthy animal-free alternative. Egg white is
a smart starting point for the next level proteins. Because of its
unique functional properties like gelling, foaming, binding and
emulsifying, the egg white is extremely difficult to replace with
alternative ingredients. In many applications, egg is the last
frontier before entirely animal-free end products can be
manufactured ", says Itkonen.
"We are highly impressed with the Onego team's capabilities,
background, and their vision for the company. With their
technology, they have the potential to produce bioalbumen at an
industrial scale and at a price point that is competitive with
conventional egg production which has major implications for the
environment and animal welfare. Egg white production has a huge
total addressable market and there is a necessity to utilise
precision fermentation tools to meet the demand in a sustainable
manner. We look forward to seeing what they can accomplish", says
Jim Mellon, Executive Director of Agronomics.
It is forecasted that food production based on cellular
agriculture will lead to a disruptive change in the entire food
system. The technology would not just have a positive impact on
environmental issues but also reduce exposure to antibiotics, and
contribute to global health by preventing infectious diseases, such
as bird flu, from transferring to humans.
"VTT has world-class knowhow in the field of cellular
agriculture and microbial based protein production," says Tua
Huomo, Executive Vice President, VTT. "In Finland there are great
companies working on other areas of cellular agriculture, and now
it's time to set the bar high and have a position also for proteins
that are traditionally sourced from animals. This action will be
hopefully remembered as one of the great milestones towards the
more sustainable and healthy food system," Huomo concludes.
The project has been part of VTT LaunchPad, a science-based
spin-off incubator, where VTT researchers and technology are
brought together with the best business minds and investors out
there to renew industries. VTT LaunchPad supports incubator teams
to develop VTT owned IPR into fundable spin-off companies.
About Onego Bio Ltd
Onego Bio Ltd is a Finnish biotech company developing
animal-free proteins such as egg white. The company, founded in
2022, is a VTT spin-off that salutes the remarkable work done by
VTT for the next level cell ag products and applications. The Onego
Bio Ltd shareholders include venture capital investors Agronomics
and Maki. The new company founded by a group of experienced
entrepreneurs and scientists has acquired a technology license from
VTT as an investment by VTT Holding. The seasoned Onego Bio Ltd
founders include Maija Itkonen, CEO, who has a notable background
as the plant based, alternative protein movement force in Finland,
through her previous company Gold&Green Foods Ltd, and
Christopher Landowski, CTO, a cellular agriculture innovator who is
behind the main IP and initial model for producing the ovalbumin
outside of chickens. The team is completed with Jussi Joensuu, COO
who is not only a renowned scientist and molecular biologist, but
also an experienced entrepreneur and farmer.
About VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd
VTT is a visionary research, development and innovation partner.
We drive sustainable growth and tackle the biggest global
challenges of our time, and turn them into growth opportunities. We
go beyond the obvious to help the society and companies to grow
through technological innovations. We have 80 years of experience
of top-level research and science-based results. VTT is at the
sweet spot where innovation and business come together. The
European Association of Research & Technology Organisations
EARTO announced VTT's technology as a winner of the EARTO
Innovation Awards 2020 competition, in the Impact Expected category
on 28th October in Brussels.
About Maki.vc
Maki.vc is a seed-stage venture capital firm based in Helsinki,
Finland that champions the entrepreneurs who rewrite the future.
The fund invests in deep tech and brand-driven companies across
consumer and enterprise spaces. Maki.vc team and global network
shares in the vision of entrepreneurs as champions and challengers,
drawing on the experience of scaling some of the strongest
technology companies. www.maki.vc.
About Agronomics
Agronomics is a leading listed alternative proteins company with
a focus on cellular agriculture and cultivated meat. The Company
has established a portfolio of 20 companies at the Pre-Seed to
Series C stage in this rapidly advancing sector. It seeks to secure
minority stakes in companies owning technologies with defensible
intellectual property that offer new ways of producing food and
materials with a focus on products historically derived from
animals. These technologies are driving a major disruption in
agriculture, offering solutions to improve sustainability, as well
as addressing human health, animal welfare and environmental
damage. This disruption will decouple supply chains from the
environment and animals, as well as being fundamental to feeding
the world's expanding population. A full list of Agronomics'
portfolio companies is available at https://agronomics.im/ .
About Cellular Agriculture
Cellular Agriculture is the production of agriculture products
directly from cells, as opposed to raising an animal for slaughter,
or growing crops. This encompasses cell culture to produce
cultivated meat and materials, and fermentation processes that
harness a combination of molecular biology, synthetic biology,
tissue engineering and biotechnology to massively simplify
production methods in a sustainable manner.
Over the coming decades, the source of the world's food supply
traditionally derived from conventional agriculture is going to
change dramatically. We have already witnessed the first wave of
this shift with the consumer adoption of plant-based alternative
proteins but today, we are on the cusp of an even bigger wave of
change. This is being facilitated by advances in cellular
agriculture. This change is necessary, given scientists claims that
if we maintain existing animal protein consumption patterns, then
we will not meet the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to
1.5
AT Kearney, a global consultancy firm, projects that cultivated
meat's market share will reach 35% by 2040. This combined with the
Good Food Institute's estimate that a US $1.8 trillion investment
will be required in order to produce just 10% of the world's
protein using this technology, means that we are on the cusp of a
multi-decade flow of capital to build out manufacturing facilities.
Funding in the field of cellular agriculture is accelerating,
however still less than US$ 2 billion has been invested worldwide
since the industry's inception in 2016.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014, as
it forms part of UK Domestic Law by virtue of the European Union
(Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of this announcement,
this inside information is now considered to be in the public
domain.
For further information please contact:
Agronomics Beaumont Cenkos Peterhouse
Limited Cornish Securities Capital TB Cardew
Limited Plc Limited
The Company Nomad Joint Broker Joint Broker Public Relations
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Richard Reed Roland Cornish Giles Balleny Lucy Williams Ed Orlebar
Denham Eke James Biddle Michael Charles Joe McGregor
Johnson Goodfellow
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info@agronomics.im 3396 8900 0936 agronomics@tbcardew.com
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