As part of our Sacramento Inno coverage of the startup, technology and innovation economy, the Business Journal has compiled a list of startups to watch in the new year. These startups are poised to make big moves, either in growth, funding, technology or development. We're highlighting 15 startups, generally with fewer than 100 employees, about 5 years old or less and that have raised less than $50 million.
California Cultured is a 2020 startup working to produce lab-generated cocoa, chocolate and coffee compounds free from deforestation and child labor in the chocolate and coffee industries.
The research and development company is developing sustainable and ethical lab-grown chocolate and coffee products, and last year it raised $4.5 million from global investors. The company is using techniques to get lab-grown plants to grow specific flavors, said California Cultured CEO Alan Perlstein. "The ultimate goal is to get flavors to be as good or surpass some high-quality chocolates” and coffees.
The product isn’t a substitute. It is a cell culture taken from plants and then raised in nutritious growing media. The company harvests the grown cells and ferments them to build flavor. It also roasts the cell-cultured cocoa nibs to add complexity.
California Cultured launched two years ago in Davis to take advantage of the plant technology and biotechnology scientists in the region and at the University of California Davis, Perlstein said. The company recently expanded to its own lab, which it is still building out, in West Sacramento, where most of its 21 employees work.
