Onego Bio Bags €14M in EU Accelerator & Additional Series A Funding for Animal-Free Egg Protein

Finnish startup Onego Bio has received a further €14M in investment to advance production of its precision-fermented egg protein, ahead of US regulatory approval in the coming months.

Three months after raising $40M in its Series A round, Finnish precision fermentation player Onego Bio has brought in another €14M ($15.2M) to scale up production and fuel its EU plans.

The latest capital injection comes from the European Innovation Council’s (EIC) Accelerator Programme and additional Series A investors, taking the total raised by the startup to $70.8M.

It comes as Onego Bio gears up for a North American launch, expecting to achieve self-determined Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status for its Bioalbumen protein in the US this year, with a ‘no further questions’ letter from the US Food and Drug Administration anticipated in 2025.

The EIC financing will also be used to drive its launch strategy in the EU, where it plans to submit a dossier for novel food approval to the European Food Safety Authority. Eventualy, it aims to enter the South American and Asian markets as well.

EU novel food regulation ‘lags behind’

Onego Bio was one of 68 companies that attracted investment from the EIC scheme. A total of 969 startups had initially submitted proposals, 347 of which were interviewed by juries of investors and entrepreneurs. Of the selected companies, only 21% were women-led – but one of these is Onego Bio.

It is helmed by Maija Itkonen, who founded the startup with CTO Christopher Landowski in 2022 after spinning off from the VTT Technical Research Center of Finland. “The new funding and immense support from our investors demonstrates their confidence in our vision and the potential of innovations like Bioalbumen to build a more sustainable system,” Itkonen said.

“It also shows that the EU recognises precision fermentation as a solution to address sustainability issues and enhance food security in Europe and worldwide,” the CEO added.

The EIC Accelerator Programme chooses to invest in startups or SMEs with high-impact products, services and business models that can viably be scaled up, and create new or disrupt existing markets in Europe and beyond. In its 2024 Work Programme, it pledged to invest €50M in precision fermentation and algae-based startups, recognising their potential to improve sustainability, resilience and efficiency in the region’s food supply.

“However, to remain competitive and fully capture the potential of exceptional European research and innovation, the regulatory approval process must be accelerated, as the EU currently lags behind other regions in this area,” noted Itkonen.

No precision-fermented or cultivated meat product has received the greenlight under the EU’s stringent novel foods regulation, whose complexity and timescale are exacerbated by the fact that it has 27 member states. Some of them – like Italy, France and now Hungary – are trying to derail the progress of alternative proteins.

An example of headway comes from the UK. Even though it left the EU years ago, it has still continued to follow the bloc’s framework for novel foods. But this year, the Food Standards Agency has proposed overhauling the process to accelerate approval and innovation. And just yesterday, the UK became the first European country to greenlight the sale of cultivated meat, albeit this was for pet food.

Onego Bio building its own manufacturing unit

While plant-based egg analogues are more commonplace, only a handful of companies are innovating with eggs through precision fermentation. California’s The Every Co has received three ‘no questions’ letters from the FDA and partnered with a host of brands for applications ranging from beverage mixes to meat analogues. Germany’s Formo, meanwhile, is set to launch a precision-fermented egg alternative (which isn’t bioidentical) later this year.

Onego Bio’s egg proteins come from the Trichoderma reesei strain, creating a nature-identical version of ovalbumin (which makes up 54% of the protein found in egg whites). It introduces the genetic blueprint of ovalbumin to the fungi cells through a scientific database that acts like a library, which enables them to produce egg proteins instead of their own.

The microbes feed on sugar in a process similar to beer brewing, and depending on the stage of the production process, they’re either starved with little food or allowed to “gorge on glucose”. This is because once these fungi are fed plenty of glucose and then starved of it, they start sweating proteins.

The resulting Bioalbumin is then placed into a fermentation tank with water and fungal biomass. The latter is separated to procure a liquid containing the egg protein, which is then dried into a powder.

This protein is nutritionally complete with all essential amino acids, and boasts the highest possible protein digestibility score (90g of protein per 100g of egg white). It can be used in products like baked goods, confectionery, snacks, sauces, pasta, meat analogues and more. Plus, it has a fraction of the climate cost, needing 95% less land and producing 90% fewer emissions than conventional eggs.

With egg prices regularly fluctuating due to an unstable supply chain, innovations like Onego Bio’s are crucial for a resilient food system. Currently, it is producing the Bioalbumen with co-manufacturers and finalising plans for its own manufacturing unit.

“A single Onego full-scale manufacturing unit will boast a two-million-litre fermentation capacity, effectively delivering the protein equivalent produced by six million laying hens,” the company said, adding that its “highly productive and scalable” tech will enable it to offer competitive pricing to chicken eggs.