Remilk, an Israeli startup that makes animal-free dairy, announced yesterday that it has raised $11.3 million in Series A funding (hat tip to CTech). The round was led by fresh.fund, with participation from CPT Capital, ourCrowd, ProVeg, Hochland, Tnuva and Tempo.
Remilk creates its non-dairy dairy through a process of microbial fermentation. The result is the production of real milk proteins that the company says creates milk that is identical to cow’s milk without the need for any actual cows.
If this sounds familiar, that’s because microbial fermentation is the same process Perfect Day uses to create its own animal-free dairy proteins. Perfect Day, however has been around since 2014, raised $361 million, got FDA approval for its whey-free protein, and has its product to market through the Brave Robot ice cream brand.
Fermentation is a hot topic in food tech these days. In September, the Good Food Institute issued a report calling fermentation the third pillar of alternative protein. As we wrote at the time:
In the last five years there’s been a “Cambrian explosion” of companies in this segment, Nate Crosser, start-up growth specialist at GFI and author of the report, told me in an interview this week. By mid-2020 there were 44 fermentation companies globally working on alternative proteins, up from 23 companies in 2018.
Some of those companies include Change Foods, which is making animal-free cheese through fermentation, and a company called Melibo,which is using precision fermentation to create honey without the bees.
In addition to being a part of the fermentation trend, Remilk is also among a wave a food tech startups coming out of Israel. Companies there are doing really innovative things with plant, and cell-based meat (and chicken) as well as kitchen robotics.
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