GLP-1 Boom Fuels Sugar Shift As Oobli Lands $18M For Sweet Proteins

US food tech firm Oobli has raised $18M and partnered with global ingredients supplier Ingredion to co-develop better-for-you sugar alternatives with sweet proteins.

As Americans turn their backs on sugar in the Ozempic era, one startup is leading the alt-sweetener charge with sweet proteins that don’t impact the glycemic index.

Based in California, Oobli has secured $18M in Series B1 funding from investors including Ingredion Ventures, Lever VC, and Sucden Ventures, which have joined existing backers like Khosla Ventures, Piva Capital, and B37 Ventures.

The financing round takes Oobli’s total raised to almost $50M and is complemented by a new partnership with global ingredients giant Ingredion. This will involve the development of new sweetener solutions – using ingredients like stevia and sweet proteins – for food and beverage companies.

Large food companies are increasingly turning to synbio startups for supply chain solutions like Oobli’s sugar alternative.

“We’ve long been at the forefront of innovation in sugar reduction solutions, and our work with sweet proteins is an exciting new chapter in that journey,” said Nate Yates, VP and general manager of sugar reduction and fibre fortification at Ingredion, and CEO of its PureCircle stevia division.

How Oobli makes its sweet proteins

Oobli takes its name from the Oubli fruit, which is native to West Africa and contains brazzein, a natural sweet protein that’s up to 2,000 times sweeter than sucrose.

But harvesting enough of the fruit for large-scale production of brazzein isn’t possible. Instead, Oobli makes use of precision fermentation, which combines traditional fermentation with the latest biotech advances to efficiently produce a compound of interest – a sweet protein, in this case.

The startup isolates the genes responsible for sweet proteins and inserts them into yeast, which is added to a fermentation tank filled with a nutrient-rich broth. The microbes feed on the sugars in the broth to produce the proteins, which are filtered out and purified.

In March 2024, Oobli received a ‘no questions’ letter from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), allowing it to sell brazzein to manufacturers and as part of CPG products. While the brand used to sell juices and iced teas too, it currently sells chocolate bars made with its sweet protein (combined with coconut sugar).

Brazzein isn’t the only sweet protein it has commercialised, though. In December, it obtained the FDA’s greenlight for monellin, which is found in the serendipity berry and is even sweeter than brazzein.

But how do they work? According to the company, the sweet proteins bind to and activate the same taste receptors on your tongue that sugar does, enabling us to “taste sugar without ingesting sugar”, and digest and metabolise sweet proteins just like any other protein.

The portion sizes of sweet proteins are too small to have an impact on your daily macros; the real impact is on glucose. These ingredients can replace over 70% of sugar in products like sodas, baked goods, and yoghurts, and are said to have no impact on blood sugar, insulin or the gut microbiome, according to the company. They can also complement other natural sweeteners to help companies achieve ideal sweetness levels, meet nutrition goals, and manage costs.

Sweet proteins are ‘long overdue’

Oobli is already working with a number of food companies globally, including Group Bimbo, with several product launches expected in 2025. The latest capital injection will allow the startup to expand the reach of its proteins both as a standalone solution and in combination with other sweeteners like stevia (developed with Ingredion).

“Sweet proteins are a long-overdue addition to the toolkit of better-for-you sweeteners,” said Ooblu CEO Ali Wing. “Working with Ingredion’s best-in-class teams to pair natural sweeteners with our novel sweet proteins will deliver game-changing solutions in this important, growing and timely category.”

Yates added: “Whether we’re enhancing existing sweetener systems with sweet proteins or using our established sweeteners to unlock new possibilities, we see incredible synergies across these platforms.”

The two companies have tested several co-developed products to expand the opportunities for sweet proteins and stevia, and positive consumer feedback led to their collaboration. They are showcasing some of these sweet treats at San Franciso’s Future Food Tech event in March.

Ingredion and its VC arm are also working with Better Juice, an Israeli sugar reduction startup that has developed a platform to convert fruit sugars into dietary fibre and non-digestible sugars, allowing manufacturers to cut sugar content by up to 80%. The solution has obtained self-determined GRAS status in the US.

Ozempic boom lays open potential for sugar reduction startups

There is a lot of potential to change how we use sugar for the benefit of human health, the planet, and the global economy.

In the US, people eat 17 teaspoons of sugar every day, much higher than the recommended amount. This has risen over the last century, with 2021 estimates suggesting sugar and artificial sweetener intake was up by 53% from 1909. Meanwhile, spending on sugar grew by 4% from pre-pandemic levels through to December 2022.

The calorie-rich ingredient has been a major contributor to America’s obesity epidemic, which plagues 42% of its citizens. Meanwhile, over 11% of US consumers have type 2 diabetes.

It’s why 76% of Americans are trying to limit or avoid their sugar intake, and among them, 60% are targeting added sugar in packaged foods to do so. Losing weight and managing diabetes are among the top reasons behind this anti-sugar drive, which are pertinent in the era of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Moujaro.

Polling shows that sugar is the dietary element most GLP-1 users are turning away from (with 45% consuming it less since starting the medication), and that has directly impacted the sales of several companies. Hershey’s, one of the world’s largest chocolate companies, acknowledged that these weight-loss drugs have had a “mild year-on-year impact” on its business.

With nearly three-quarters of Americans aged 20 and above overweight and obese, and almost four in 10 children and teenagers prediabetic, the appeal of the $7B sugar alternatives industry is only going to widen, sweetening the market for Oobli and competitor brands, such as Amai Proteins, Naturannova, MycoTechnology, and Sweegen.