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Dutch biotech start-up NoPalm Ingredients has closed a €5 million seed funding round led by venture capital firm Rubio Impact Ventures.

The round was co-led by Oost NL, Fairtree Elevant Ventures and Willow Capital, and saw participation from The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and other private investors.

The funding will accelerate NoPalm’s mission to provide a local, circular and sustainable solution for the global palm oil market.

Founded in 2021, NoPalm employs a unique fermentation process using non-GMO proprietary yeasts combined with low-capex technology. This process transforms upcycled, locally sourced agri-food sidestreams, such as potato peels and whey permeate, into yeast oils.

NoPalm’s oils act as a drop-in replacement for palm oil, meaning recipes do not need reformulating. The firm has achieved price parity, made possible by the use of agri-food sidestreams and an asset-light technology that is quick to scale.

The tech also boasts a 90% reduction in CO2 emissions and a 99% decrease in land use compared to traditional palm oil production.

NoPalm has partnered with industry giants including Colgate-Palmolive, Unilever and international baker Zeelandia to pilot its ingredient.

Lars Langhout, CEO and co-founder of NoPalm Ingredients, said: “Palm oil is cheap, incredibly versatile and widely used in almost every fastmoving consumer good, from your toothpaste to my newborn’s infant formula. The problem is that global demand for palm oil grows by 4% annually, and there’s no strategy to meet the additional 22 million tons needed by 2030 without clearing rainforests 1.5 times the size of Ireland.”

Langhout continued: “With new regulations banning deforestation-related products, European companies can only source sustainably certified palm oil, which excludes 83% of current supplies. This will drive price increases that will affect every family in Europe.”

Tijl Hoefnagels, venture partner at Rubio Impact Ventures, stated: “Rubio is excited to back NoPalm Ingredients’ mission to enable palm-free and sustainable alternatives for billions of everyday supermarket products. Palm oil driven land use change threatens catastrophic loss of richly biodiverse equatorial rainforests and is responsible for more emissions every year than the entire airline industry. Companies like NoPalm Ingredients are critical to preventing further pressure on our strained planetary boundaries.”

David Evans, managing director at Fairtree Elevant Ventures, commented: “NoPalm Ingredients has demonstrated the ability to make a cost-effective drop-in replacement for palm oil and other lipids that we believe will revolutionise the industry, address the massive environmental challenge of palm oil production and harvesting as well as solve myriad supply chain pain points for customers.”

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