Nutrition Innovation announced yesterday that it has raised a $5 million Series A round of funding. The round was led by VisVires New Protein, with participation from Enerfo Group (h/t to PE Hub).
Singapore-based Nutrition Innovation makes Nucane, which the company touts as a healthier way to produce sugar. As we wrote about the company last year:
Nutrition Innovation uses near-infrared scanning technology to understand the composition of the raw sugar cane coming into the mill. Based on this analysis, Nutrition Innovation’s algorithms tell the mill how to alter its refinement process (crushing, washing, drying, etc.) in order to produce a better sugar product.
The result is Nucane, which retains minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium, and has a lower glycemic index than traditional white refined sugar. Godfrey says Nucane also creates less of a sugar “spike” and provides a more sustained release of energy after consumption.
The company markets Nucane as a “healthier” because it is not refined and has this lower glycemic index. We aren’t nutritionists or scientists so we can’t back up this claim, but since Nucane is made from sugar, it still tastes like sweet stuff, and Nutrition Innovation says Nucane can be swapped into recipes 1 for 1. This is key because Nucane is a B2B play, with industrial sugar mills being Nutrition Innovation’s customers. A mill can sell this Nucane’s “healthier” sugar to food producers, which can use it without having to alter or retrofit existing recipes.
When we last checked in with Nutrition Innovation, the company had an agreement with Australia’s Sunshine Sugar to offer Nucane to commercial buyers, and was in trial with roughly 50 companies around testing Nucane in various food and beverage brands.
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