Addressing the urgent need to produce sustainable food for a growing global population, sallea is expanding the range of cultivated animal protein products beyond minced or processed options. The startup was awarded CHF 150,000 by Venture Kick, winning the third stage of the program.
Producing enough food for a growing world population while reducing environmental damage is a huge challenge. The cultivation of animal protein has great potential to reduce the use of energy, water, and land. Currently, only the production of thin layers of cultivated animal protein such as meat or fish is possible, which limits the offering to minced or processed products, or to end products consisting of mainly scaffold and just a small amount of cell mass. To cultivate fully textured whole cuts, the development of novel cell growth scaffolds is essential.
Simona Fehlmann, Nicole Kleger and Anna Bünter are on a mission to revolutionize the foodtech industry with innovative scaffolds. With their startup sallea, they developed a 3D structuring platform that produces edible scaffolds to address the limitations of current systems by supporting cell growth in 3D besides improving the texture, taste, and nutritional value of the end product. The startup is mingling in a fast-growing market; the overall market size of cellular agriculture is expanding rapidly, with an expected growth rate of 93% in the next 10 years, bringing the market for cultivated meat to an estimated USD 20 billion in 2030.
First potential customers of sallea received regulatory approval to sell their processed products in the USA this summer. This approval shall pave the way for other companies in the ecosystem and open further opportunities for sallea’s expansion. The startup will invest CHF 150,000 from Venture Kick to strengthen its business development and accelerate its US market exploration.
“Venture Kick was of great relevance for us as it allowed us to push and progress strongly on the business development thanks to the great feedback from the jurors and inputs during the Kickers Camps. Additionally, the funding has allowed us to attend fairs and conferences to expand our network and visit potential future customers in the Netherlands and Israel, which are hotspots for cellular agriculture,” said Simona Fehlmann.
(Press release/RAN)
Photo: sallea’s Co-founders: Nicole Kleger (CTO) and Simona Fehlmann (CEO)
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