Fermify Fuels Animal-Free Cheese Growth with New Strategic Partners, Extends Seed Round

Austrian biotech company Fermify has extended a previously closed Seed round and has announced new industry partnerships with multinational companies CREMER and Interfood. According to the company, the new collaborations will fuel its growth and accelerate the development of animal-free cheese and their market entry.

Founded in November 2021 by Eva Sommer and Christoph Herwig, Fermify claims to have developed a fully automated platform to produce precision fermentation-derived casein to make animal-free cheese at scale.

Becoming a world leader

In May, in a round led by Dörte Hirschberg from Article 9 climate tech fund and Climentum Capital, the company secured $5 million to accelerate and digitalize its precision fermentation process to disrupt the dairy industry. Now, with the new partnerships, the biotech company is extending the Seed round.

Eva Sommer, CEO & founder at Fermify, comments: “These partnerships with CREMER and Interfood will further accelerate our path to become the world leading provider for precision fermentation technology.” 

Media-feeding solutions

CREMER is a German multinational B2B supplier of plant-based raw materials with an extended worldwide network, industry knowledge, supply chain expertise, and sustainable nutrition know-how. CREMER has been increasingly
involved in healthy and sustainable nutrition and has launched a growth strategy in the alternative protein segment, explains Fermify.

The partnership will focus on developing media-feeding solutions for precision fermentation processes — optimizing the production of sustainable proteins. CREMER’s experience sourcing input material, especially side streams from other industries, will reduce embodied GHG emissions and secure a supply chain for future customers.

Dr. Ullrich Wegner, CEO of CREMER, says: “We want to establish ourselves as a prominent contributor of the ongoing nutritional transformation and add significant value to the industry. Together with Fermify, we can take the next step in this direction.”

Routes to market

Interfood is a world-leading provider for F&B that distributes over 1.1 Million MT of dairy ingredients annually and is looking to expand its portfolio with sustainable alternatives. The company’s customers are food processing multinationals that will provide Fermify with a global dairy network and related expertise to launch into the market.

Edwin van Stipdonk, CCO at Interfood: “Dairy forms an integral part of global dietary patterns and has deep cultural significance. However, making the production of these loved products more sustainable is a complex challenge, one that requires inventive thinking and novel technologies. With Fermify’s deep tech approach to developing novel milk proteins and our knowledge of the global dairy market, we can develop routes to markets and applications across the world.”

“Together, we can provide solutions where economic and ecological sustainability can go hand in hand, allowing current and future generations to enjoy dairy responsibly,” says Fermify.

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