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Shiru, an AI-powered ingredient discovery company, has secured $16 million in new funding to advance ingredient innovation across industries.

The investment round, led by S2G Ventures with participation from CPT Capital, Lux Capital, Nourish Ventures and Meach Cove Capital, brings Shiru’s total funding to $36 million. The funds will support Shiru’s growth, ingredient portfolio expansion and further development of ProteinDiscovery.ai through new partnerships and expanded offerings.

Shiru’s ProteinDiscovery.ai platform hosts the "world’s largest database" of natural plant and microbial proteins. The AI platform helps companies in food, personal care, agriculture and advanced materials identify and test natural ingredients quickly, significantly cutting R&D and product development costs and speeding up time to market, while delivering high functional capabilities from nature-identical products.

Shiru's recent advancements include a partnership with Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition to develop scalable sweet proteins. The company also launched OleoPro, a patented structured fat alternative that incorporates uPro as its active protein ingredient. Additionally, Shiru has established collaborations with global companies like Griffith Foods to "discover, pilot and scale" sustainable food ingredients.

Jasmin Hume, founder and CEO of Shiru, said: "AI-powered discovery isn't only the future of ingredient innovation – it's here today, and we’re eager to expand our capabilities across flavour, skincare and agriculture. Our technology dramatically reduces development timelines and costs, empowering R&D teams to revolutionise products, categories and industries through our platform, enabling valuable innovation and competitive advantage."

She added: “While we’re starting with proteins, our vision extends far beyond. ProteinDiscovery.ai is just the beginning. We’re building a comprehensive platform that will revolutionize ingredient discovery across multiple molecular classes, driving innovation that benefits both industry and consumers.”

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