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LegenDairy Foods gets $4 million funding

Agronomics has co-led a €4 million seed fundraising round of German company LegenDairy Foods alongside M Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of science and technology company Merck.

CPT Capital also participated in the round. CPT Capital is a long-standing investor in alternative protein technologies, with a portfolio including Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Memphis Meats, Perfect Day and Good Catch.

LegenDairy focuses on harvesting real dairy proteins, using the same fermentation process used for producing insulin and rennet for cheese, to produce dairy products once combined with plant-based fats. LegenDairy was co-founded by Raffael Wohlensinger and Dr Britta Winterberg, with the intention of producing genuine dairy products, without cholesterol and without the need of animals, alleviating animal welfare concerns and providing a simplified supply chain to produce dairy products. The team is focusing on cheese products initially, recognising that existing vegan cheese on the market lacks the identical proteins found in dairy cheeses - casein and whey protein.

Richard Reed, Chairman of Agronomics, said: "In the next decade, we expect there will be a seismic shift in the methods used for protein production. This will be supported by the recognition that industrial scale dairy farming is energy inefficient and a concern for animal welfare, especially considering the constant impregnation of dairy cows to produce milk. Legendairy is at the forefront of this wave, and we are thrilled to be a part of their journey to provide delicious cheeses without the necessity of raising animals."

Raffael Wohlgensinger, Co-founder and CEO of LegenDairy, said: "The food industry has crossed an inflection point - for the first time in human history, we are capable of producing real dairy products without the need of breeding and raising animals. We are delighted to team up with Agronomics and other leading investors in the alternative protein field to fully leverage our core technology and bring our delicious, animal-free cheese to market in the coming years."