Israeli food-tech firm InnovoPro has raised $15 million in a Series B funding round, to accelerate the growth of its chickpea protein operation.
The start-up claims it is the first company in the world to launch a 70% chickpea protein concentrate.
It says the ‘innovative’ plant protein is suitable for a wide range of applications, spanning the dairy alternatives, meat analogues, bakery and sports nutrition categories and offers benefits such as eco-friendly credentials, as well as non-allergenic properties.
The company’s latest financing round was led by venture capital fund Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), with other participants including Custos Privatstiftung, CPT Capital and Wolfgang Leitner, CEO of engineering solution firm Andritz AG.
According to InnovoPro, the funds will be used to expand its production capacity and for establishing business development and marketing joint ventures.
“The growing demand for plant-based protein is setting new records with every year that goes by,” said Taly Nechushtan, CEO of InnovoPro.
“We believe that InnovoPro will lead the new alternative protein category and be the one to introduce products with added health and nutritional values to customers.
“Since chickpeas are considered by consumers as a superfood, our next generation of ingredients will not just be offering tasty and ‘free from all’ properties, but health properties as well.”
JVP partner Michal Drayman added: “We see InnovoPro as more than just a promising start-up. Over the past two years we have made significant progress in the worldwide food market and succeeded in creating strategic partnerships with the biggest names in the industry.
“The capital raised will be used to position InnovoPro as one of the top alternative protein companies in the world.”
The aim of identifying the ‘next generation’ of plant-based proteins has underpinned several recent research efforts.
Earlier this month, research by FutureBridge named chickpeas as one of the four plant proteins ‘best positioned’ to displace today’s industry staples of wheat, soy and pea.
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