TIDMANIC
RNS Number : 2994U
Agronomics Limited
01 August 2022
1(st) August 2022
Agronomics Limited
("Agronomics" or the "Company")
Agronomics Leads Clean Food Group's Seed Financing of GBP1.65
million
Agronomics, the leading listed company focused on the field of
cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce it has led Clean Food
Group Limited's ("Clean Food Group") seed financing with a
GBP577,500 investment, subscribing for 5,775,000 Ordinary Shares at
10 pence per share (the "Subscription"). Clean Food Group is a
UK-based cellular agriculture company focused on the
commercialisation of palm oil by fermentation. The Subscription
will be made using cash from the Company's own resources. Also
joining the round is AIM traded SEED Innovations Limited (of which
Jim Mellon, executive director of Agronomics, has a 6.95%
holding).
Clean Food Group was co-founded by CEO Alex Neves and
Co-Chairman Ed McDermott in 2021, with the goal of becoming a
leading independent UK cultivated food ingredients business. Ed
McDermott founded EMMAC Life Sciences Limited, a European medicinal
cannabis business which was scaled and sold to Curaleaf Holdings
Limited ( CuraLeaf ) for US$ 345 million in April 2021. Alex Neves
was Head of EMMAC's Consumer Division and played a key role in the
company's success.
In March 2022, Agronomics subscribed for 32,300,000 Ordinary
Shares at 1p per share in Clean Food Group's founder's round for a
total consideration of GBP0.323 million which will, subject to
audit and based on the price per share of the latest Subscription,
be carried at GBP3.23 million, representing a multiple on invested
capital of 10. Following the close of the seed financing, the
Company will hold a total of 38,075,000 ordinary shares with an
equity stake of 35.03% and an aggregate value of GBP3,807,500.
Agronomics will have the right to a board seat of Clean Food Group
and Jim Mellon, an Agronomics' director, will be appointed as
non-executive Co-Chairman.
Clean Food Group recently acquired the intellectual property
from the University of Bath for a technology platform that produces
a bio-equivalent palm oil alternative using microbial fermentation
and has secured a two-year collaboration with the University to
scale the technology and bring its palm oil alternative to market.
Additionally, the proprietary technology platform also produces
natural 2-phenylethanol as a by-product, which is used worldwide as
a rose fragrance and flavour and will also be commercialised.
The technology has been developed over the last eight years by
Professor Chris Chuck and his team at the University of Bath.
Professor Chris Chuck joined Clean Food Group as a technical
advisor and leads a team of scientists at a dedicated Clean Food
Group laboratory and Pilot Plant at the University of Bath.
Clean Food Group is currently identifying partners to work with
and intends to submit a novel foods dossier for market approval of
its palm oil alternative product to the European Food Standards
Agency and UK Food Standards Agency in 2022.
The global palm oil market reached a value of US$ 50.6 billion
in 2021 and is expected to reach US$ 65.5 billion by 2027. However,
palm oil has been, and continues to be, a major driver of
deforestation of some of the world's most biodiverse forests,
destroying the habitat of already endangered species like the
orangutan, pygmy elephant and Sumatran rhino. This forest loss
coupled with conversion of carbon rich peat soils are generating
millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and
contributing to climate change. There also remains the issues of
exploitation of workers and child labour.
Jim Mellon, executive director of Agronomics commented:-
"We are thrilled to be supporting Clean Food Group and
broadening our portfolio into sustainable bio-equivalent palm oil.
This is an important and exciting development, and this latest
investment will help Clean Food Group to achieve R&D milestones
and prepare regulatory dossiers for approval. The technology has
huge scale potential and we look forward to being part of the
company's next stage of growth."
Alex Neves, co-founder and CEO of Clean Food Group added:-
"We are pleased to have seen such significant demand for our
seed financing round and are particularly excited to be working
with Agronomics, widely recognised as a pioneer of the cellular
agriculture investment community, as our cornerstone investor. We
are committed to establishing ourselves as a leading UK cultivated
food ingredients business, starting with the commercialisation of
our bio-equivalent palm oil alternative, a product that has already
received significant market interest. With this funding round now
successfully completed, we are not only well capitalised to
complete the next stage of our corporate development, but are also
well placed to take the next step on the path to bringing our palm
oil alternative, an ingredient with the potential to solve
substantial environmental, food security, health and working
environment challenges within the incumbent palm oil supply chain,
to market."
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.
About Clean Food Group
The Clean Food Group is a UK based food-tech business focused on
bringing sustainable, cultivated foods to market, initially, in the
UK and Europe.
Clean Food Group operates within the fast-developing cultivated
food industry, a market with significant opportunities driven by
global environmental, health and animal welfare concerns about
existing and future consumption levels of animal protein and other
foods such as palm oil.
Clean Food Group sets itself apart through its strong technical,
consumer and retail expertise, strong financial backing, and its
ability to navigate the complex regulatory environment for new food
products.
Clean Food Group is founded by a team with key experience in
growing bio-tech, food industry and retail businesses supported by
established venture capital and family office investors with a
track record supporting highly successful growth companies in
highly regulated industries.
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 23 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 $1.8 trillion investment
will be required in order to produce just 10% of the world's
protein using this technology, means that we are on the cusp of a
multi-decade flow of capital to build out manufacturing facilities.
Funding in the field of cellular agriculture is accelerating,
however still less than US$ 4 billion has been invested worldwide
since the industry's inception in 2016.
For further information please contact:
Agronomics Beaumont Canaccord Cenkos Peterhouse Capital
Limited Cornish Limited Genuity Limited Securities Plc Limited TB Cardew
The Company Nomad Joint Broker Joint Broker Joint Broker Public Relations
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Richard Reed Roland Cornish Andrew Potts Giles Balleny Lucy Williams
Denham Eke James Biddle Harry Rees Max Gould Charles Goodfellow Ed Orlebar
Alex Aylen (Head of Michael Johnson Alistair Walker
Equities)
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+44 (0) 1624 +44 (0) 20 7930 0777
639396 +44 (0) 7738 724 630
info@agronomics. agronomics@tbcardew.
im +44 (0) 207 628 3396 +44 (0) 207 523 8000 +44 (0) 207 397 8900 +44 (0) 207 469 0936 com
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