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Microbial protein company MicroHarvest has secured €8.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Astanor Ventures and Happiness Capital. The funding will support the commercialisation of MicroHarvest’s single-cell protein production process. The Hamburg-based start-up’s proprietary technology enables the production of protein using bacteria at a speed and efficiency that is said to 'greatly exceed' existing approaches. MicroHarvest will use the funding to grow its R&D team, construct a pilot plant in Lisbon and accelerate towards commercial-scale production. After a successful acceptance trial this year, an at-scale production trial will yield product for further application trials, with the aim to enter the market in 2023. Possible applications of the company's protein are numerous, ranging from animal feed to human food. Alongside Astanor and Happiness Capital, Faber and existing investor FoodLabs also joined the round. “MicroHarvest’s approach is by far the easiest and most scalable way to produce sustainable protein that we have come across, with applications along the whole protein value chain. We’re impressed with what the MicroHarvest team has achieved in such a short time,” said Christian Guba, investor at FoodLabs.