NZ dairy startup that sidesteps cows gets $2.4m investment

A New Zealand startup that is working to develop dairy proteins in plants has received a round of investment seed funding to develop its technologies.

The company, Miruku, concentrates on making plant-based alternatives to dairy proteins, sugars and fats that would usually be sourced from animals. It achieves this through modifying plant cells to have them produce these components as though they were tiny cellular factories.

As one of the founders of the company notes, cows already use plants to produce these dairy proteins, so the process effectively circumvents them as a middleman and delivers plant-produced compounds to food producers instead.

Using its molecular farming platform, the company is aiming to enable the development of animal-free dairy products like traditional yoghurt and cheese.

The team has received $2.4 million in seed funding to further develop its technologies and methods. The investment was headed by venture capital fund Movac, with other partners including Better Bite Ventures, Colorado-based Ahimsa Foundation, and NZ Growth Capital Partners via their Aspire fund.

The startup was founded in 2020 by former dairy executive Amos Palfreyman; technology and life science investor Ira Bing; Dist. Professor Harjinder Singh, who has worked on the science of milk proteins; and food technology expert Professor Oded Shoseyov.

“We share a vision that applies the sharp edge of applied science to agronomy and food tech, at scale, with global partners. Our goal is to provide nutritious and functional animal-free dairy, economically,” Palfreyman said.

“The Miruku team is amped to have been joined by a special set of local and international institutional foodtech investors backing our vision of delicious and ecologically sustainable food production, and of course our growth plans.”

Image caption: Miruku Co-Founders — Amos Palfreyman, Ira Bing and Harjinder Singh.