AI Startup Gets $15.4M from EU Fund For Sustainable Proteins Made From Food Waste

Spanish AI-powered fermentation startup MOA Foodtech has received €14.8M ($15.4M) from the European Innovation Council to transform agricultural waste into high-value ingredients.

Turning waste into functional foods using artificial intelligence (AI), Spain’s MOA Foodtech has secured millions in funding commitments under the European Innovation Council’s blended finance scheme.

The startup has received €2.3M ($2.4M) in a direct grant from the EIC’s accelerator programme, in addition to a €12.5M ($13M) equity investment commitment from the EIC Fund. The latter is to be executed in a second phase as the amount would need to be matched by further financing from private investors.

MOA Foodtech will use the capital to advance its Non-GMO Directed Fermentation project, which leverages its Albatros AI platform and fermentation to valorise food industry sidestreams and produce functional and sustainable ingredients.

In addition to the financial support, projects backed by the EIC Accelerator benefit from Business Acceleration Services too, which provide companies with access to leading experts, corporate partners, and investors.

Marrying AI with fermentation to save food waste

Founded in 2021 by Susana Sánchez, José María Elorza, and Bosco Emparanza, MOA Foodtech utilises biomass fermentation to develop high-value ingredients.

The company’s AI platform, Albatros, helps identify the optimal microorganisms to feed on these byproducts, which include cereals, bagasse, and legumes. The resulting biomass has high nutritional credentials – it contains all essential amino acids and has a protein digestibility score of 0.9 (on par with soy, beef, eggs and casein).

Combined with its functional attributes, this allows companies to use the ingredient in a variety of applications, from plant-based meat and cheese to bread, sauces and pasta.

One of the biggest challenges of commercialising fermentation-derived ingredients concerns regulation. But unlike precision fermentation – which requires novel food and GMO approval – MOA Foodtech uses microbes already recognised as safe by the European Food Safety Authority and the US Food and Drug Administration. This will help the startup streamline its approval process and bring its ingredients to market faster.

The firm has been the recipient of several EU-backed investments, in collaboration with the local government of Navarra, under projects titled OMIC4FOOD, React, and Valsana. Prior to this latest EIC investment, MOA Foodtech raised €3M in a Series A round last summer, taking its total equity funding to €4.5M.

“Our selection by the EIC is a vote of confidence in MOA’s technology, which seeks to revolutionize ingredient production,” said Emparanza, who is the CEO. “This funding will allow us to advance our AI platform, develop new functional ingredients, and further expand our impact.”

Fermentation startups continue to find success

Armed with the new funding, MOA Foodtech is finalising and scaling up the Albatros platform, and building a catalogue of proprietary ingredients to showcase the tech’s versatility.

It is also looking to expand operations to an industrial scale, which would strengthen its position as a supplier, as part of its goal to become Europe’s first large-scale producer of ingredients made using directed fermentation.

The company is already working with food industry leaders, including Italy’s Barilla, the world’s largest pasta producer.

It was one of 71 startups selected by the latest EIC Accelerator funding round, which the body labelled as the “most competitive” to date since its launch under the Horizon Europe scheme. Over 1,200 applications were submitted, and only 430 were invited to present the projects to the council. The eventual winners secured a cumulative €387M ($404.6M) in funding, split between grants and equity investments.

The EU has collectively pumped €252M into future food research since 2020, half of which was invested in 2023 and early 2024, chiefly from its Horizon Europe programme. The scheme also set aside €50M to help scale precision fermentation and algae-based food startups in 2024.

Other fermentation startups that have benefitted from the EIC Accelerator in recent months include Sweden’s Millow and Melt&Marble, Dutch firm NoPalm Ingredients, and Finland’s Onego Bio.

This comes on the back of growing VC interest in fermentation-derived startups too. While investment in plant-based protein and cultivated meat startups in 2024 fell by 65% and 40%, respectively, the fermentation vertical secured 43% more capital last year, making up four of the five largest alternative protein funding rounds.