Fueling the growing world population requires ensuring the supply of climate-friendly and ethically-produced proteins, new protein sources, and novel food production technologies. While many are starting to enter the plant-based food category globally, few companies are driving R&D efforts to offer GMO-free dairy alternatives and specialized ingredients.
Since 2022, a new wave of modern food companies are joining forces to accelerate innovation in microalgae and share upstream and downstream resources. Collectively, they have a shared global mission to develop microalgae as the base for sustainable nutrition and novel food products that eliminate animal suffering and promise an ecological footprint far superior to that of intensive industrial farming.
One leading company is Sophie’s Bionutrients, a B2B food technology company on a mission to create plant-based, protein-rich alternatives to meat and seafood using microalgae. The Temasek Foundation-backed startup, operating between Singapore and the Netherlands, in 2021 announced to be the world’s first foodtech company to use microalgae to develop 100% plant-based and sustainable alternative proteins for use in dairy and other novel foods.
Another high growth startup, NewFish®, is a leading New Zealand biotech and novel ingredients company specializing in fermentation, production, R&D, commercialisation and manufacturing of novel seafoods and proteins derived from microalgae.
Both companies are at the forefront of advancing microalgae protein research and product development in their respective regions. Their collaboration spans their global value chains, including shared research and development, co-development of microalgae strains, ingredients supply for manufacturing, and commercializing new food and alternative dairy solutions.
