Melbourne-based startup The Leaf Protein Company has booked a new $850,000 funding round, helping the innovative firm refine and produce plant-based ingredients for the food and beverage industry.
The raise was led by the University of Melbourne’s Genesis pre-seed fund, in collaboration with Breakthrough Victoria. Further investment came via LaunchVic’s Hugh Victor McKay Fund, which is dedicated to supporting local agtech startups, and Loyal VC.
The $850,000 injection will be used to make the startup’s first hires, fine-tune its pilot plant, and refine its protein production methods before sending out completed goods to customers.
Founded in 2020 by CEO Fern Ho and chief scientific officer Connor Balfany, The Leaf Protein Company focuses on the enzyme Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase oxygenase, which is plentiful in regular green foliage.
It’s a mouthful in more ways than one.
Unlike other plant-based protein startups dedicated to creating alternative meats, The Leaf Protein Company intends to process the enzyme — called Rubisco, for short — into an emulsifiable, gellable, and foamable protein.
The pitch: not only does the ingredient provide a plant-based alternative to traditional animal proteins, but it can also be extracted from leaves, which are technically the most abundant source of protein on Earth.
The ability to eke nutrition from leaves makes economic sense as consumers are increasingly conscious of their foods’ environmental toll, while also providing new economic opportunities, Ho said.
“All by-products from this process are also marketable as other food ingredients, animal feed and packaging materials, meaning we essentially produce no waste streams from the leafy green input material,” she said.
Hun Gan, CEO of the Genesis fund, said it will support The Leaf Protein Company to “take these important next steps towards translating their new technology into a business with the potential to improve lives, address significant global challenges and deliver impact at scale”.
Big Idea Ventures, a global fund that already backs Sydney’s Smart MCs biotech startup, also backs The Leaf Protein Company.
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Senior Business Journalist
Focused on the small business sector, David’s work covers the political, regulatory, and economic issues facing Australian entrepreneurs. Prior to joining SmartCompany, he was a reporter for Business Insider Australia. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
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