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Dutch ingredients company Vivici has announced that it has successfully closed its seed funding round, with support from founding investors DSM-Firmenich and Fonterra. The company’s aim is to meet the world’s growing need for sustainable, nutritious and great tasting proteins through bringing animal-free dairy proteins made with precision fermentation to market. In a statement announcing its successful closing of the round, Vivici said that global demand for protein will nearly double by 2050 and current ways of producing protein cannot be scaled sustainably to meet that demand. Vivici is leveraging “decades of experience” in developing and scaling bioprocesses, with specialist knowledge in the isolation and application of dairy proteins. Fermentation-produced dairy proteins can provide functional benefits in a wide array of applications. Based in the Netherlands, Vivici has its headquarters at the Biotech Campus Delft and a dairy protein application lab in the Food Valley at NIZO food research. Stephan van Sint Fiet, CEO of Vivici, said: “I'm thrilled to work with such an experienced team, that knows what it takes to not only develop, but manufacture, register and commercialise great ingredients. Together, we will build Vivici into a precision fermentation leader that contributes to a future-proof food system.” Pieter Wolters, managing director of DSM-Firmenich Venturing, commented: “We are thrilled to be a founding investor in Vivici BV's Series Seed capital raise. Vivici has the foundation for success and builds on multiple years of joint technology and application development and is now well-positioned as an agile startup company."