Israeli startup DouxMatok announced yesterday that it has raised a $22 million Series B round of funding for its sugar reduction system. The round was led by BlueRed Partners, with strategic investments from Südzuker AG, Royal DSM and Singha Ventures. This brings the total amount raised by DouxMatok to $30.2 million.
Sugar has come under more intense scrutiny over the past few years because of the high amount we’re eating and its deleterious effects on our bodies. Rather than creating some sugar substitute, DouxMatok aims to make the sugar we already consume more efficient. As we wrote when covering the company last year:
Evidently, sugar isn’t very good at hitting our taste buds, so food makers cram products full of it to attain their desired level of sweetness. A straightforward reduction in the amount of sugar in a product, then, is difficult to do without sacrificing taste.
DouxMatok gets around this by leveraging silica, which has lots of nooks and crannies that sugar molecules can fill. The sugar-packed silica diffuses more efficiently on our tongues, so food companies can use 40 percent less sugar in their products, without sacrificing the taste.
According to the press announcement, DuoxMatok will use the new funding to scale up production and sales of its solution as it commercializes in Europe and North America. The company says it will soon complete manufacturing of its sugar in Europe, done in partnership with investor Südzucker AG. DouxMatok also says it’s in discussions with a number of food companies to reformulate their products. DouxMatok expects commercial availability of its sugar by the end of this year.
DouxMatok is not the only company looking to make sugar a little sweeter for the health conscious. Nutrition Innovation uses near-infrared technology and a different refinement process to make NuCane, which retains sugar’s minerals and has a lower glycemic index. Candy company Nestlé has experimented with its sweets by changing the structure of sugar through the addition of microscopic holes so less can be used.
As a big fan of confectionery treats, seeing all this innovation in sugar is definitely pretty sweet.
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