bigideaventures
  • Accelerator
  • Funds
  • Portfolio
  • BIFC
  • Team
  • Media
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Apply
Select Page

Lypid Bags $4 Million In Seed Funding For Vegan Meat Fat Scale-Up Investigation

by Olivia Chavassieu | Jun 21, 2022 | Press | 0 comments

Californian food tech startup Lypid has scored $4 million in a seed funding raise to scale their vegan fat. Green Generation Fund led the round, with Big Idea Ventures and SOSV’s Indie Bio participating, amongst others. New investment will be used to, hopefully, scale and commercialise the company’s flagship fat development, PhytoFat. More data is said to be needed to fully ascertain the viability of scaling.

Lypid’s long-term plans centre around the production of 10 tonnes of fat per year, in line with the alt-protein sector’s growth. It is one of a number of startups looking to perfect designer fats for use in plant-based meats. It claims to be taking a different approach, using micro-encapsulation of liquid plant oils with high melting points, to prevent oil leakage during cooking.

Photo by Lypid.

The good kind of fat

Lypid claims that effective, tasty fat is what vegan meats are missing. Coconut oil, currently used by multiple plant-based meat brands, is now being replaced with more innovative substitutes. “The challenge is that vegan fats – even harder ones like coconut oil – actually still have a very low melting point, so the appearance after cooking isn’t right and the texture isn’t right as the oil leaks out,” Dr Jen-YiHuang, co-founder of Lypid explained to FoodNavigator-USA.

The startup, which is a 2021 IndieBio alumn, claims to have developed a solution. Plant oils are micro-encapsulated in water, to generate ‘spongy’ fats that don’t melt at low temperatures. PhytoFat is said to function exactly like animal fats, with better retention during heating. It can be adapted to use different plant oils for requisite outcomes as well. “For plant-based chicken applications you probably don’t want solid, visible fat, so you want something more like a paste [whereas in beef products, you might want visible globules of fat distributed throughout the product,” Huang said.

Tweaking the application

Traditionally, fats would be added at the end of plant-based meat manufacturing. Lypid is experimenting with the possibility of adding it during extrusion, for better integration and cost-effective manufacturing. The depositing of mostly monounsaturated plant oils into meat is said to reduce the saturated fat levels of vegan meat products, which have previously been a concern. Lypid claims that companies using PhytoFat will be able to retail clean labelling, where appropriate and that all its ingredients are Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS) for consumption.

Mission Barns’ cultivated fats. Photo by Mission Barns.

Fats that function

Yali Bio is on a mission to develop its own brand of precision fermentation-based designer fats for use in plant-based meats and dairy. The Californian startup has revealed that it sees imperfect fats as part of the problem when it comes to tempting meat lovers away from animal protein. It aims to develop fully customisable clean label fats that offer better sustainability than existing options.

Last month, Zero Acre Farms closed a $37million Series A funding round. Attracting a number of celebrity backers, including Coldplay and Richard Branson, the San Franciso startup uses fermented microbes to develop fats that are superior and healthier than standard vegetable oils.

Mission Barns is on a different track, seeking to create cell-based fat profiles. The Silicone Valley food tech closed a $24 million Series A funding round last year, to construct a pilot plant for its continued R&D. The move is the first towards commercialisation and was supported by Green Monday Ventures and Lever VC.

Recent Posts

  • Founder’s Story: Meet Alison Fagan founder and CEO at @CF Foods Group
  • 3 innovators that are shaping the next stage of food innovation in Singapore
  • Spanish startup Cocuus raises €2,5M in Funding to scale its 3D bioprinting technology for the production of alternative proteins
  • Mewery Looks To Slash Cultivated Pork Costs With Microalgae Ingredients
  • Milk without the cow

Archives

  • June 2022
  • April 2022
  • February 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • November 2018
  • July 2018
  • April 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2017
  • December 2016
  • July 2016
  • July 2015

Categories

  • Blog
  • Events
  • Podcast
  • Portfolio
  • Press
  • Research Paper
  • Uncategorized
Apply New York Apply Singapore Apply Paris
  • Contact
  • Funds
  • Investing
  • Partners
  • Portfolio
  • Foodivate
  • Research
  • Terms
  • Anti Spam
  • Copyright
  • DMCA
  • FTC
  • Privacy
  • Social Media
New York

88 Pine St., 14th Floor
New York, NY 10005

Singapore

No. 9 Chin Bee Drive,
SG, 619860

Paris

Station F, 5 Parv. Alan Turing 75013 Paris, France 

Newsletter
Stay on top of our latest news.
Loading
Don’t worry, we won’t spam you.
© 2020 Big Idea Ventures. All Rights Reserved
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
 
Required 'Candidate' login to applying this job. Click here to logout And try again
 

Login to your account

  • Forgot Password?

Reset Password

  • Already have an account? Login

Enter the username or e-mail you used in your profile. A password reset link will be sent to you by email.

Close
 

Answers

 

Account Activation

Before you can login, you must active your account with the code sent to your email address. If you did not receive this email, please check your junk/spam folder. Click here to resend the activation email. If you entered an incorrect email address, you will need to re-register with the correct email address.