The latest news, trends, analysis, interviews and podcasts from the global food and beverage industry
UK biotech manufacturer Clean Food Group (CFG) has raised £4.5 million in fresh investment to accelerate the scale-up of its fermentation-based oils and fats platform.
The funding round was led by Clean Growth Fund and New Agrarian, with additional backing from existing investors, including SEED Innovations and strategic partner Döhler Group. Clean Food Group also secured a £700,000 non-dilutive grant from Innovate UK.
The capital injection will support the scale-up of CFG’s recently acquired one million-litre fermentation facility in Knowsley, Liverpool, positioning the company to expand production capacity and accelerate the commercial rollout of its yeast-derived oils and fats.
Tom Ellen, chief financial officer of CFGsaid: “We are extremely pleased to have the continued support of Clean Growth Fund and a new partner in New Agrarian, two highly respected specialist investors in sustainable food and industrial biotechnology."
He added: “Their support, together with the Innovate grant, represents a strong endorsement of Clean Food Group’s significant progress and the scale of the opportunity ahead. The capital raised will enable the company to bring on stream the world’s largest yeast-derived oils and fats facility and to deliver on our long-term vision for sustainable food manufacturing.”
CFG is targeting growing demand for sustainable, locally produced alternatives to traditional agricultural oils, particularly those linked to environmentally sensitive supply chains such as palm oil. The company’s fermentation platform uses food waste feedstocks and engineered yeast strains to produce functional lipids designed for food, cosmetics and pet nutrition applications.
With the Knowsley site, CFG claims to operate the world’s largest facility dedicated to yeast-derived oils and fats, enabling production at a scale intended to meet industrial demand while reducing reliance on imported raw materials.
Rodrigo Hortega de Velasco, managing partner at Döhler Ventures, the strategic investment arm of Döhler Group, commented: “The acquisition of the Knowsley facility marks a significant milestone, enabling production at a scale that brings these innovative products closer to widespread commercial reality. We look forward to continuing our collaboration as Clean Food Group advances towards full-scale market deployment.”
The global sustainable food market, valued at $315 billion in 2024, is expected to reach $524 billion by 2032, underlining the commercial opportunity for companies developing next-generation ingredient technologies.
Jim Mellon, chairman and founder of New Agrarian, said: "Supply chain fragility is one of the defining risks of our time. War, climate volatility, and trade disputes are presenting a huge challenge to manufacturers; the ingredients we assumed would always be available are no longer guaranteed. Clean Food Group is addressing this problem head-on, using scalable science and technology to build genuine resilience and sustainability into the way we produce and source key ingredients used in everything from food to cosmetics."
Founded in 2022 following eight years of research and development, CFG has focused on bridging the gap between lab-scale innovation and industrial production.
The latest funding positions the company to move from pilot and early commercial phases into full-scale manufacturing, an inflexion point for fermentation-based ingredient start-ups seeking to compete with established agricultural supply chains.