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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

TurtleTree Labs

Cell-Based Breastmilk Startup TurtleTree Eyes Lactoferrin as First Commercial Product

TurtleTree, a startup developing human breastmilk using cellular agriculture technology, has announced that its first commercially available product will be lactoferrin, a protein found in both animal and cow milk.

Lactoferrin has long been viewed as a critical protein to both fight infection and to aid in brain development of young children, as well as a supplement to help women fight iron deficiencies, has more recently gained traction for its ability to help fight against COVID-19 infection.

While today’s supplement industry uses cow-derived lactoferrin, human breastmilk has 5-7 times the concentration. TurtleTree saw an opportunity.

“We have been able to identify early commercial ingredient targets due to our frequent conversations with prominent performance nutrition and infant formula companies,” said Max Rye, Chief Strategist of TurtleTree. “We’ve since seen tremendous interest from global partners in our portfolio of human and bovine milk products. It is going to be an exciting year for us.”

TurtleTree focus on lactoferrin as it’s first product for scaled commercial production doesn’t mean it’s giving up on creating fully realized cell-based breastmilk. The company is still working on its technology that grows mammary gland cells in a lab which actually lactate milk, but recognizes it could take a few years before cell-based milk can scale and has full regulatory approval.

TurtleTree isn’t the only cell-based breastmilk startup to make the news lately. Earlier this week BioMILQ announced that it has successfully made human breast milk outside the breast. Another, Israel-based BioMilk, is looking to create both human and cow milk analogs and recently became publicly listed on Tel Aviv stock exchange despite being few years out still from commercially scaled production.

TurtleTree Scientific Partners With JSBiosciences to Develop Cell Culture Media at Commercial Scale

TurtleTree Scientific, the B2B arm of cellular ag company TurtleTree Labs, announced today a new partnership with JSBiosciences to collaborate on the development of cell culture media. The overarching goal of the partnership is to bring down the cost of production for cell-cultured products in order to eventually achieve commercial scale.

Singapore-based TurtleTree Labs is best known for its technology that produces human milk from mammalian cells. The company launched its TurtleTree Scientific arm earlier this year with the goal of creating food-grade growth factors for cultured protein products.

Finding a growth media that is accessible, affordable, and that doesn’t rely on animals to get remains one of the biggest challenges for cultured protein companies. Some companies are now trying to distance themselves from the use of the controversial fetal bovine serum (FBS), but alternatives are few and far between, not to mention wildly expensive. 

JSBiosciences is a valuable partner in this area because it already has a successful track record of developing mammalian cell culture media at a large scale. The company will provide TurtleTree with food-grade basal media and media formulation services, with the goal of getting “upstream” production costs low enough to allow for commercial-scale production of cell-cultured products, starting in Singapore.

This is the second major partnership for TurtleTree Scientific so far in 2021. Last month, the company announced a collaboration with biotech company Dyadic International. Through that partnership, the two companies are developing recombinant food-grade growth factors for proteins that can be grown in high yields at lower costs in bioreactors.

TurtleTree Scientific and Dyadic to Develop Affordable Growth Factors for Cell-Based Proteins at Scale

TurtleTree Scientific, the recently launched B2B unit of TurtleTree Labs that develops growth factors for cellular ag, today announced a “fully funded” collaboration with biotech company Dyadic International. Through this partnership, the two will develop recombinant food-grade growth factors for proteins that can be grown in high yields at lower costs in bioreactors. This could allow TurtleTree, which makes cell-cultured products (including human breastmilk) to scale up and get to market faster, paving the way for cultured meat and dairy companies to do the same.

Dyadic is known for its its C1 gene expression based on the Thermothelomyces heterothallica fungus. Via this platform, Dyadic can produce recombinant proteins at an industrial scale of up to 500,000 liters, with lower capital and operating expenditures than what cultured meat companies would normally find. The company’s tech has been used by some of the world’s most well-known biotech companies, including DuPont and BASF.

In a statement, TurtleTree cofounder and Chief Strategist Max Rye said that manufacturing human growth factors both at scale and at an affordable cost has been a major challenge, and that the partnership with Dyadic will help the company “overcome this hurdle” safely and efficiently.

Growth factors account for the bulk of the cost in cell-based protein production — 55 to 95 percent, by some accounts. Part of the reason for this, TurtleTree explained last month, is that cell culture media components have been developed for non-food areas like research and theraputics, which do not have the same scale requirements and cost constraints as food and agriculture production.

Ronen Tchelet, PhD, Dyadic’s Vice President of Research and Business Development, said in today’s press release that the company will engineer “hyper-productive” C1 cel lines to develop high bioactivity and yields suitable for commercial-scale productions. This will not only accelerate the timeline for TurtleTree’s business, it could also, according to Rye, “make cellular agriculture a reality for all” by enabling food-grade growth factors at an affordable price point to the wider cellular ag industry.

TurtleTree Labs Raises $6.2M for its Cell-Cultured Milk

TurtleTree Labs, which is best known for developing cell-based human breastmilk, announced today that it has raised a $6.2 million Pre-A round of funding. Green Monday Ventures, Eat Beyond Global, KBW Ventures, and Verso Capital all participated in the round. This brings the total amount of announced funding for the company to $9.4 million.

While TurtleTree’s breastmilk endeavors may grab most of the headlines, the company is actually working on re-creating a number of different types of milk using cell cultures. As we’ve written previously:

TurtleTree Labs uses cellular agriculture to grow mammary gland cells in a nutrient rich bath that actually lactate milk. This company is initially focusing on re-creating human breast milk, and will follow that up with cow milk. Because they are creating milk in the lab, scientists can alter the milk to give it different attributes like higher or lower fat or cholesterol.

In its press announcement, TurtleTree said it will use the new funds to “accelerate research and production of functional, bioactive proteins and complex sugars found in human milk.”

Both TurtleTree and fellow cultured breastmilk company Biomilq have made headlines throughout 2020. Both companies raised funding rounds in June. And last month, we learned of Biomilq’s plan to use biopsies to create individualized cultured breastmilk.

The ability to create human breastmilk in the lab may sound kind of scary at first, but it has the potential to do a lot of good. Cultured breastmilk doesn’t rely on animal-based dairy like other infant formulas, so it could have an environmental benefit. And cultured breastmilk could also help mothers who for biological, economic or societal reasons, can’t breastfeed their babies as much as they’d like.

There are still regulatory hurdles that must be overcome before we’ll see cultured breastmilk hit the market. But given the investor interest we’ve seen in the space this year, expect to see more technological breakthroughs in 2021.

Lever VC Launches Alt-Protein Fund for Early-Stage Companies

Alt-protein-focused venture capital firm Lever VC announced this week that it has launched a new fund targeting early stage plant- and cell-based protein companies. The Lever VC Fund I currently has $23 million in capital commitments, according to a company press release. 

Lever’s partners had previously invested in Beyond Meat, Impossible, Memphis Meats, and other notable alt-protein companies. Managing Partner Nick Cooney also founded the Good Food Institute, a non-profit for alternative protein companies.

Speaking this week to Food Navigator, Cooney said Lever’s new fund is doing 20 to 25 early stage investments that have so far been between $200,000 and “close to $1m.” He added that Lever tracks alt-protein companies in a proprietary database.

“For us as a sector specialist fund, we have the ability to really look across the board to identify the companies that are exciting but also have a valuation that makes sense from a risk return perspective,” he said. 

Lever has already invested roughly $5 million across 10 companies. Those companies include TurtleTree Labs, which makes cell-cultured human breastmilk, and Mission Barns, a company that recently made headlines for its cell-based bacon. Better Meat Co., GOOD PLANet Foods, The Good Spoon, and Bond Pet Foods, Avant, Grounded, Marvelous Foods, and A Dozen Cousins.

Globally, investment in alternative protein has already reached $1.1 billion in 2020 so far, which is almost double the total investment number for all of 2019. The pandemic is partly responsible for this huge uptick in interest in the category as consumers rethink their reliance on animal-based meats and dairy items. The entire market for alternative protein is expected to grow to $17.9 billion by 2025.

Lever said in today’s press release that it will continue to invest in early-stage companies working in the alt-protein space and remains open to additional investors until the Fund’s final close.

Singapore to Allocate $40M to Help Agtech and Aquaculture Startups Grow More Local Food

Singapore agtech is about to get an investment shot in arm, one that could give the whole world a clearer vision of alternative farming’s role in our future food system. Enterprise Singapore, the government agency committed to startups, said last week it will invest roughly $40 million USD into agtech and aquaculture companies, according to AgFunder News. 

Koh Poh Koon, Singapore’s senior minister for trade and industry, said during the announcement that “Using agritech can help to make [Singapore’s] food supplies more resilient by building a bigger margin of local food capacity.”

Sinapore relies on imports for about 90 percent of its food. As the pandemic has shown us, that reliance on external sources can be problematic if the supply chain gets disrupted. The city-state already has one initiative in place to address this, the “30 by 30” program, which aims to have 30 percent of Singapore’s food produced domestically by 2030. 

The newly announced funding will go towards agtech and aquaculture startups that apply through the Singapore government’s Business Grants Portal. 

Singapore has become something of a hotbed in the last couple years for food tech, especially when it comes to alternative proteins and alternative farming methods. Last year, the city-state’s National Research Foundation allocated $535 million (USD) to increase R&D efforts in cell therapy manufacturing, digital technology, and sustainable urban food production. Food-focused accelerators like GROW’s Singapore Food Bowl program are also emerging as a resource for startups. Meanwhile, individual companies are also developing ways to make Singaporean food more local, from SinGrow’s proprietary strawberries, to Turtle Tree Labs’ cultured human breastmilk.

Those uses of alternative farming and food production could be a clue for the rest of the world about how technologies like high-tech farming systems, post-harvest technology, and raising alternative protein sources fit into the broader picture of the future food system. Many of these technologies are nascent and have yet to prove themselves economically scalable. If Singapore can use them to meet its “30 by 30” goal and beyond, it could provide a blueprint for the rest of the world as the population increases and demand for local food production grows.

TurtleTree Labs Raises $3.2M Seed Round for its Cultured Human Breast Milk

Turtle Tree Labs, a Singapore-based startup that creates milk from mammalian cells, announced yesterday that it has raised a $3.2 million seed round of funding. Green Monday Ventures, KBW Ventures, CPT Capital, Artesian, and New Luna Ventures all participated in the round.

As we’ve covered previously, TurtleTree Labs uses cellular agriculture to grow mammary gland cells in a nutrient rich bath that actually lactate milk. This company is initially focusing on re-creating human breast milk, and will follow that up with cow milk. Because they are creating milk in the lab, scientists can alter the milk to give it different attributes like higher or lower fat or cholesterol.

When we spoke to TurtleTree at the end of 2019, the company had plans to debut its first glass of human breast milk in Q1 of 2021 and enter the market at the end of 2021. We don’t know if the COVID-19 pandemic has altered any of those plans, but in its funding announcement, TurtleTree said that the Singapore government has been supportive, allowing the company to continue its work apace.

Cultured breast milk seems to be a pretty hot space right now. TurtleTree’s funding comes just a week after BIOMILQ raised $3.5 million for its cultured breast milk solution.

It’s not hard to understand why cultured human breast milk is attracting funding. It has the potential to provide a healthier and more environmentally friendly option for women who are unable to produce enough breast milk on their own because of biological or environmental reasons.

That is still years away, however, as companies like TurtleTree need to continue development of its product and scale up to make its milk more affordable. This new round of funding will definitely help that.

Future Food: Are We Okay with Breast Milk Grown in a Lab?

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“Wait, human milk?”

I thought I’d misheard the two of the co-founders of TurtleTree Labs, a Singaporean company that creates milk from lactating mammary gland cells, as they described their product line.

But I had not. “Yep, any kind of milk,” said their CTO Max Rye. That encompasses everything from the usual suspects like cow to more niche products like sheep, goat, or even human breast milk.

In fact, TurtleTree’s first product — which they’ll be taste testing in early 2020 — will be milk made from human mammary gland cells. They chose breast milk because it will allow them to enter the market at a higher price. Right now a liter of any of their cell-based milk (any kind) costs just under $200. That’s incredibly steep compared to plant-based dairy, but on par with Prolacta, a service that pasteurizes and resells human milk to feed newborn babies in hospitals.

As a company, TurtleTree is remarkable for a few reasons. Firstly, as far as I know, it’s the first company to make cell-based milk. Perfect Day and New Culture are using a type of fermentation to create milk proteins, while plenty of others rely on plants to imitate dairy’s creaminess. TurtleTree, however, is using cellular agriculture to grow the milk directly, cutting out the middleman.

Two — they are making human milk. It’s a polarizing concept; everyone I’ve spoken to about it so far was pretty grossed out by the idea. Consumers are getting used to the idea of eating meat grown in a lab, but they might not be as open to a lab-grown alternative of something that’s typically made by humans. Especially something meant to be fed to babies.

It’s early days in the cellular agriculture field. And though I haven’t experienced it myself, I know that nursing children can be a frustrating, painful and difficult process for many women. As the idea of consuming cell-based foods becomes more accepted, I wouldn’t be surprised if the idea of cell-based baby milk becomes less polarizing, too.

If a startup tells me it’s working on human meat though? That one might be a bridge too far.

A plant-based burger from Upton’s Naturals

Put a label on it
This week the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA) released the first standard for the labeling of plant-based meats. Basically, its goal is to create a consistent labeling protocol across the entire alternative meat industry. The standard says that alternative meat companies can use meat terms in on their labels — sausage, chicken, etc. — as long as they include appropriate qualifiers, like “vegan” or “plant-based.”

The PBFA’s new standard is clearly in response to recent legal battles meant to make it impossible for companies to use terms like “burger” or even “meat” when labeling their product, even if they make it clear that it does not, in fact, include meat.

So far, over a dozen states have passed meat labeling restriction laws. But the PBFA and others are fighting back. Just a few months ago PBFA member company Upton’s Naturals won a victory against the state of Mississippi, which was trying to regulate plant-based meat labeling language.

Clearly, the PBFA is hoping that by setting out a universal standard for alternative meat labeling will help the entire industry as they fight for their right to use basic language like “burger” and “sausage.” We’ll see if that will be enough to deter Big Meat.

Photo: Perfect Day

Big funding for animal-free meat & milk
Two startups creating animal-free products announced some major new funding this week.

First, Meatable, a Dutch cultured meat company, let fly that it had raised $10 million. A few days later Perfect Day, a startup developing animal-free dairy using genetically engineered microbes, announced a whopping $140 million Series C.

Obviously the Perfect Day funding is far more significant, at least in terms of numbers. But it also makes sense: Perfect Day has already brought its first product — flora-based ice cream — to market. Meatable has yet to publicly share a prototype.

When I spoke with Perfect Day co-founders Perumal Gandhi and Ryan Pandya about their Series C, they told me that this is just the start of a series of upcoming announcements. “We’ve got lots coming up,” Pandya said. “Q1 [of 2020] is going to have to have really juicy stuff.”

I can’t wait to find out just what that “juicy stuff” could entail (flora-based cheese, please?). In fact, I expect to see a lot more meaty (lol) funding announcements coming into the alternative protein space over the next few months, especially in emerging fields like flora- and cell-based foods. 2020 is going to be an interesting one.

Photo: Siggi’s new plant-based yogurt.

Protein ’round the web

  • Icelandic yogurt company Siggi’s launched a new plant-based line with high protein and low sugar.
  • Nutriati, a company that makes plant protein ingredients, announced that it had raised a $12.7 million Series C.
  • Beyond Beef is hitting shelves in Canada (via VegNews).
  • Apparently McDonald’s could be selling more than 250 million of its plant-based PLT’s if it expanded them into its U.S. stores (h/t RestaurantDive)
  • Motif FoodWorks is partnering with the University of Queensland to research ways to make better textures in meat alternatives.

Eat well,
Catherine

TurtleTree Labs is Creating All Kinds of Milk (Even Human Milk) in a Lab

When I first heard about TurtleTree Labs, a new self-described “clean milk” company based in Singapore, I assumed that the startup was creating milk proteins from genetically modified microbes, similar to alternative dairy companies like Perfect Day or New Culture.

Boy, was I wrong. “That’s very much not what we’re doing,” TurtleTree’s CTO Max Rye explained to me over the phone. Instead, their scientists are using cellular agriculture to grow mammary gland cells in a lab which actually lactate milk.

And by milk, we mean any kind of milk — not just cow milk. In fact, according to TurtleTree’s CEO Fengru Lin their first product will likely be human milk.

Yep, human. She said that they’ll focus on human breastmilk initially for a few reasons. One, it could sell at a much higher cost, so they could reach price parity more quickly than with, say, cow’s milk. For context, their cultured milk — any type — currently costs about $138 per liter to produce.

However, TurtleTree won’t be selling its cell-based milk directly to consumers. Instead, the company plans to license out its milk-producing technology, for which it has a provisional patent, to large dairy companies as a SaaS model.

Rye told me that since the milk is cell-based, there’s a huge amount of versatility to their product. Their scientists can play with the settings to create milk that’s lactose-free and has different cholesterol and fat levels. So, for example, they could make a healthier milk for those following strict diets, or an ultra-creamy options for gourmet chefs. 

The startup plans to have a media day in Q1 of next year to debut their first glass of milk, which will likely be human. It’ll be a while yet before they enter the market — two years, according to Lin. The startup has raised an undisclosed amount of funding and is in the midst of raising their seed round. 

TurtleTree’s decision to operate out of Singapore is a very conscious one. Not only were two of the four co-founders already based there, but the local government is very supportive of food tech initiatives. The country has a goal to produce 30 percent of its own food by 2030 (they currently import over 90 percent). As a result, the Singaporean government gives more support to startups to get new products to market more quickly. 

That could give TurtleTree an advantage against other dairy disruptors. As I mentioned at the beginning of the piece, TurtleTree isn’t the only company trying to make milk without the animal. Perfect Day or New Culture are both using microbes to create the protein building blocks of dairy — casein and whey — to create milk that’s genetically similar to the real thing. However, Rye said that TurtleTree has an advantage over these competitors because they can make milk “without having to break it down piece by piece.” Their technology is also species agnostic, meaning they can create milk of any animal without having to rebuild an entirely new process.

I understand why heading to market with cell-based human milk makes sense from a cost perspective, but I’m not sure how well it’ll be received — at least at first. People are pretty skeptical about eating lab-grown food to begin with. Developing a product that normally only comes from humans has a distinctly Soylent Green-y vibe that could be very off-putting to consumers. Especially as something to feed to their babies.

However, as cultured meat and other products hit the market and become more commonplace, maybe that perception will change.