What is the role of regulation and how will it need to evolve?
FGH: Regulation plays an important role in enabling a smooth transition to alternative proteins. In our view, regulators will make this transition feasible, especially for the people who have to do the work, namely farmers. As we grapple with the financial side of this transformation, we cannot forget the farmers. They are the bedrock of our food system, and for them, the shift will be doubly challenging given the already slim margins for agricultural products. Historically, farmers have received subsidies that favor animal agriculture, so upfront investment is needed to help them reshape their operations.
Regulators are also key to making sure consumers continue to trust in the safety of the food they buy and can choose what’s best for them based on clear labelling. So, if companies want to bring innovation to consumers in a timely fashion, open and collaborative communication between regulators and companies is critical.
How do you identify the companies you invest in?
FGH: Blue Horizon has deep expertise and technical know-how in the sustainable food sector. Based on this, we built a proprietary quantified market model (QMM). Our QMM maps where value creation occurs along the food value chain – and which technologies could be game changers for the food system. We continuously update and refine this model with market data, expert discussions and technical research. This provides us with key insights on which technologies will be most valuable once scaled. We focus our deal sourcing on these value pools. We then look for strong teams who are ready to execute on their stated mission and who share our values.
"We see fascinating technologies coming from every corner of the world, often stemming from different motivations and cultural preferences – just like the different flavors found in food."
Dr. Friederike Grosse-Holz
Director, Blue Horizon
How closely do you collaborate with companies after investing?
FGH: This varies and depends entirely on what is most valuable for the company. One thing we always do is work with our portfolio companies on impact and on financials, which most companies find very useful. For example, our quantitative impact reporting helps them tell their impact story in a concise, convincing way to their customers, partners, and employees. But there’s a whole range of support we offer – everything from providing warm introductions to international retailers in our network, to giving feedback on their next pitch deck.
Looking at the entire field, where do you see the greatest potential going forward?
FGH: Moving forward, all types of alternative proteins – whether plant-based, cell-based or fermentation-based – will have to work together. Hybrid products are a good example of this; they will be key to getting alternative proteins to market sooner. We already see numerous hybrid products in the development stage incorporating a bit of cell-based technology to achieve specific mouthfeel and desired flavor. Nutrients such as B-12 or omega-3 generated from cultivated cells can be added to plant-based products to boost their nutritional value. And we see hybrid products that combine fermentation-enabled and plant-based proteins. A notable example here are plant-based burgers which incorporate heme protein, like the Impossible burger. Another example is plant-based cheese fortified with casein, which confers the much desired stretching and melting behavior of traditional cheeses. Hybrid products will enable fermentation and animal cell-based proteins to come to market much sooner than if they relied 100 percent on cultivated meat or 100 percent on fermentation-enabled product.
What key innovations would foster even greater uptake of alternative proteins?
FGH: One is the need for more bioreactors to scale up production processes. This would certainly help solve the massive bottlenecks on the fermentation side, where there is simply too little fermentation capacity.
Another barrier that is not often discussed is the shortage in human capabilities. We need more people who can design and operate plants that produce alternative proteins. At the moment, there are too few companies like GEA, who have the expertise required by this growing sector. A lot of companies today can make a very interesting product on the scale of 500 milliliters, but now face the challenge of scaling up to 500,000 liters. This requires a completely different skill set.
It’s a situation that is ripe for more industry collaboration and an injection of growth-type capital, particularly where a technology is mostly de-risked and ready for scaling up. There are more and more of these kinds of opportunities emerging. And when leveraged, this will propel the industry to the next step and bring fermentation-enabled products, hybrid or purely fermentation-based, to the mass market.
Header image: BlueNalu