Fermify Expands Seed Round, Accelerates Animal-Free Cheese Development

Austrian biotech company Fermify has announced an extended Seed funding round in addition to forming new alliances with multinational corporations, CREMER and Interfood.

Fermify secured $5 million in Seed funding in May, in a round led by Dörte Hirschberg from the Article 9 climate tech fund and Climentum Capital. Now, with new partnerships, the company is expanding that funding.

‘World leading provider for precision fermentation technology’

“These partnerships with CREMER and Interfood will further accelerate our path to become the world leading provider for precision fermentation technology,” Eva Sommer, CEO and founder at Fermify, said in a statement.

The two new partnerships are expected to bolster Fermify’s growth and hasten the market introduction and development of animal-free cheese using Fermify’s precision fermentation process.

The company, which launched in 2021 by co-founders Eva Sommer and Christoph Herwig, boasts a fully automated platform intended to produce casein derived from precision fermentation, thereby allowing for the large-scale production of animal-free cheese.

The German multinational B2B supplier, CREMER, is renowned for its supply of plant-based raw materials and its sustainable nutrition know-how. The company’s collaboration with Fermify aims to develop media-feeding solutions for precision fermentation processes and optimize the production of sustainable proteins.

New dairy solutions

“We want to establish ourselves as a prominent contributor of the ongoing nutritional transformation and add significant value to the industry. Together with Fermify, we can take the next step in this direction,” said Dr. Ullrich Wegner, CEO of CREMER.

Interfood, a top global provider for F&B that distributes over 1.1 million metric tons of dairy ingredients every year, aims to extend its portfolio with sustainable alternatives.

“Dairy forms an integral part of global dietary patterns and has deep cultural significance,” said Edwin van Stipdonk, CCO at Interfood. “However, making the production of these loved products more sustainable is a complex challenge, one that requires inventive thinking and novel technologies,” he said.

Fermify says it with its new partners, it can provide solutions “where economic and ecological sustainability can go hand in hand,” and that, it says, will allow “current and future generations to enjoy dairy responsibly.”