Motif, a Ginkgo Bioworks spinoff that exited stealth in February with $90 million in Series A, raised $27.5 million in an extended round of funding and rebranded to Motif FoodWorks.
This round is an extension to its previous round which was led by General Atlantic with participation from CPT Capital. The company will direct proceeds from this round towards accelerating its product pipeline, work with academia on research collaborations in molecular food science disciplines, hire personnel in scientific research and regulatory affairs and bolster its R&D efforts.
Motif FoodWorks works on a B2B model, making alternative proteins to sell to food companies and product developers as an ingredient.
Michele Fite, the chief commercial officer, noted that the company is in negotiations with seven top universities in the U.S. and Europe, the details of which will be announced in the next two months. In terms of R&D, the company has three focus areas: Building out the food lab in the Drydock area, hiring top talent within the food science industry and investing resources into discovering novel proteins, novel fats to improve taste and nutrition of plant-based foods.
The company also added three new senior management positions to its leadership team: Janet Collins joined as the head of regulatory, government and industry affairs. Collins was formerly the executive vice president of CropLife America and president of the Institute of Food Technologists.
Julie Post-Smith joined as director of business development; Post-Smith comes from Kerry where she was the senior business director. The former founder and CEO of Sprouted Ventures Morgan Keim joined as the business development manager. And Peter Lafer, a vice president at General Atlantic focused on life sciences investments in the firm's global Healthcare sector, will join its Board as an observer.
MotifFoodWorks uses parent company Ginkgo Bioworks' platform to produce food protein through fermentation. The technology understands the genetics or genome sequence of a particular protein, synthesizes that sequence and manufactures it, and places it in yeast or other microbes and grows them in a tank through fermentation.
The company is working on creating ingredients for 15 products in its pipeline, with a focus on dairy nutritional products. Motif FoodWorks' innovative ingredients will be aimed at increasing the nutritional value, taste and functionality (smell, texture and consistency) of the products.
"We are the ingredients inside the products," Fite said. "Think about the molecule that creates the taste and texture."
In the upcoming months, Motif FoodWorks will build out its regulatory, business development and operations teams and hire for positions in these departments while it prepares to launch the first products in the market in 2021.
