Chile-based AI startup Protera has completed a $5.6 million Series A financing, led by European life sciences venture capital firm, Sofinnova Partners.
Protera will use the funds to advance its AI-driven design and commercialise new protein products that can offer a wide range of natural and sustainable solutions.
“We throw away one-third of the food we produce every year worldwide, and one of the main reasons is microbial contamination. This financing will enable us to scale up protera guard™, a protein that provides people with food that lasts longer, and which replaces widely used chemical ingredients with an efficient natural alternative,” said Leonardo Álvarez, CEO and co-founder of the company.
To create new proteins, Protera uses a proprietary deep learning algorithm, MADI™, that predicts high value, patentable protein products and enzymes with unprecedented speed.
“The highly entrepreneurial team at Protera leverages the convergence of recent AI developments and the opportunity to engineer biology to develop sustainable solutions in multiple verticals,” added Joško Bobanović, Partner at Sofinnova Partners, who will be joining Protera’s board of directors.
Álvarez said: “Our products will allow manufacturers to use proteins in a myriad of applications that were thought to be impossible before. We are harnessing protein engineering to address critical sustainability issues – from food to agriculture and human health”.
Protera is about to initiate pilot trials with multinational food companies to deploy a clean-label protein capable of extending shelf life and replacing chemical ingredients from products.
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