The latest news, trends, analysis, interviews and podcasts from the global food and beverage industry

Precision fermentation platform developer, Liberation Labs, has announced the closure of a $20 million seed round of funding. Led by Agronomics and Siddhi Capital, the funds will be used for the purchase and development of a site on which it will build a 600,000 litre production facility to meet demand for novel proteins from both traditional and food-tech companies. Liberation Labs aims to commercialise precision fermentation with a network of international manufacturing sites, designed to facilitate the next wave of biotechnology advancements to produce alt-proteins at scale. Mark Warner, co-founder and CEO of Liberation Labs, said: “Liberation Labs aims to dramatically increase availability of precision fermentation capacity to meet the rising demand for alternative proteins… Our business model enables us to not only meet the demand from today’s traditional food companies but unlock innovation among the dozens of emerging food-tech companies.” The closure of the seed round will see the company’s focus turn to finalising the site selection process, placing orders for long-lead equipment and building out the operations team. Co-founder and co-managing partner of Siddhi Capital, Steven Finn, said: “We’re confident in the experience and talent of the senior executive team at Liberation Labs to deliver on a novel approach to precision fermentation. We believe they can make a significant contribution to making the global food system more sustainable and scalable.” Liberation Labs anticipates beginning operations and commercial production at its first facility by the end of 2024.