Cultimate Foods raises 2.3 million EUR seed funding from leading Biotech and Foodtech investors to revolutionize the alternative meat industry

April 23, 2024

BERLIN, April 23, 2024 – Cultimate Foods, a biotech startup based in Berlin’s Biocube and Hannover (Institut für Technische Chemie, Leibniz Universität Hannover), successfully closes its seed round to scale up production processes, expand commercial collaborations and operation.

The 2.3 million EUR round was led by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), one of Europe’s leading seed investors. HTGF was joined by the Life Science ValleyWachstumsfonds, b.value AG and Kale United. Leading global Foodtech investor Big Idea Ventures also participated in this round.

Cultimate Foods creates a game-changing alternative fat ingredient to bring the authentic meaty experience to plant-based products. While there are lots of plant-based meat products available on supermarket shelves, taste remains the top consumer barrier to the adoption of these sustainable alternatives. Cultimate Foods is a B2B partner in supplying cell-cultivated premium fat ingredient to the alternative meat industry to tackle this problem. The company already run several commercial pilots with the food industry leaders.

Cultimate Foods began its first steps in Göttingen at the Life Science Factory, where it could start its research directly in the well-equipped laboratories right after the pre-seed round.

Science is the key to addressing many of the problems caused by the food industry. Through innovative technology, we can deliver the meaty flavors consumers crave while simultaneously cutting down on unethical intensive animal farming and tackling climate change by reducing CO₂-emissions. Follow your passion and make the world a better place!

Eugenia Sagué, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Cultimate Foods.

In a short time, Cultimate Foods was able to achieve significant milestones, establish strong ties with the foodtech industry and cooperations with universities. HTGF is excited to tap into a new investment vertical and support Cultimate Foods in revolutionizing the alternative meat industry with its cell-cultivated fat ingredient. In the food industry we have the chance to create a real impact,“

Tilmann Petersen, Investment Manager at HTGF

As one of the most active investors in the agrifood-tech space, we view fat innovation as essential for enhancing the taste, health profile, sustainability, and scalability of sustainable foods. And as early pre-seed investors in Cultimate who have seen the team grow from strength to strength, we are excited to continue to support Cultimate in this successful seed round for the launch of their innovative fat ingredient.

Caroline Mak, Senior Director at Big Idea Ventures

Closing the seed round in today’s fundraising environment validates the achievements of our technological approach and the efforts of our team. With a consortium of experienced Biotech and Foodtech funds on board, we look forward to benefit from both areas of expertise when scaling up to the next TRL and entering our first markets

George Zheleznyi, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Cultimate Foods

About Cultimate Foods
Cultimate Foods is a cellular agriculture company that creates alternative fat ingredients for plant-based meat products. Unlike other fat alternatives, this company creates a unique lipid composition of the fat delivering authentic pork and beef flavor. The company raised more than 3 million EUR to date and is backed by strong life science investors HTGF, b.value AG, Life Science Valley Wachstumsfonds as well as the largest foodtech funds Big Idea Venture, ProVeg International and Kale United.

Contact for press: hello@cultimatefoods.com.

About Life Science Valley Wachstumsfonds
The early-stage fund for life science technology spin-offs in Lower Saxony aims to leverage the local commercial and entrepreneurial potentials arising from excellent life science research and technologies. It supports companies operating in the fields of biotech, medtech, digital health, agriscience and foodtech, fostering successful company formations in technological growth areas.

About b.value AG
The b.value AG invests in deep-tech startups that combine exceptional founding personalities and disruptive technologies to provide solutions for a sustainable world of tomorrow. The b.value AG team is characterized by deep technology expertise and many years of operational experience in building and managing biotech and high-tech companies enabling to identify the most promising deep-tech startups and to support them financially and strategically to realize their full potential. The unique structure and experience allow b.value AG to act flexibly and take a long-term view.

About Big Idea Ventures
Big Idea Ventures is a global investment leader within the food-tech, agri-tech, and materials science sectors. We specialize in investing in the most innovative and sustainable technology companies worldwide. We combine capital and partnerships to drive economic growth and build new food ecosystems. By creating and supporting trailblazing companies we aim to reduce the climate impact of food production and sustainably feed the world. Big Idea Ventures has teams in New York, Paris and Singapore and has invested in more than 110 companies across 30 countries. 

About Kale United
Kale United is a public holding company, making impact investments in pioneering plant-based and foodtech companies. The goal is to maximize impact while maximizing financial return.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) finances tech start-ups with growth potential and has supported more than 750 start-ups since 2005. With the launch of its fourth fund, HTGF now has about 1.4 billion euros under management. Its team of experienced investment managers and start-up experts support young companies with expertise, entrepreneurial spirit and passion. HTGF’s focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digital tech, industrial tech, life sciences, chemistry and related business areas. To date, external investors have injected about 5 billion euros of capital into the HTGF portfolio via more than 2,000 follow-on financing rounds. In addition, HTGF has already successfully sold shares in more than 180 companies.
Fund investors in this public-private partnership include the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, KfW Capital and 45 companies from a wide range of industries. 

Media contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH  
Tobias Jacob, Senior Marketing & Communications Manager   
T.: +49 228 – 82300 – 121 
t.jacob@htgf.de