To be sure, companies making plant-based proteins still attracted the greatest amount of money over that time.

Startups focused on fermentation raised $435 million through July 15 this year, according to the Good Food Institute. Some of the companies, many of which are still in the early stages of funding, say that what their microbes produce more closely resembles animal products than existing plant-based options. Private investors are currently pouring money into companies that are changing the process of producing milk, ice cream, and even meat through fermentation from non-animal sources, arguing that there are advantages to their approach over solely relying on plant-based ingredients. By contrast, Perfect Day, which is dairy focused, uses microbes that have been genetically engineered to produce casein and whey, the two main proteins in milk. These products are created using yeast and other common microorganisms. This is all made possible through fermentation - a production process that has been around for millennia and is used to make products like beer, kombucha, and kimchi. So instead of using cows to produce milk, ice cream, and other diary products, Gandhi planned to produce food with a much smaller life form: fungi. When Perumal Gandhi cofounded dairy producer Perfect Day in 2014, he brought aboard industry veterans who knew how to make and sell food.īut his hires also included people with experience in medicine and biofuels. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

While some companies are raising microbes to serve as the protein itself, others are using fermentation to produce copies of molecules previously found only in animals, such as the proteins found in cows milk.The industry sector attracted $435 million in funding this year through July 15, more than double what cell-cultured meat companies did over the same period, according to the Good Food Institute.Venture capitalists are ramping up investments in fermentation to create alternative versions of animal-based foods like ice cream and steak.

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