TIDMANIC
RNS Number : 1428J
Agronomics Limited
14 August 2023
14 August 2023
Agronomics Limited
("Agronomics" or the "Company")
Clean Food Group Announces Successful GBP2.3 Million Pre-Series
A Financing Round with Strategic Investors
Agronomics (ANIC:LSE), the leading listed company focused on the
field of cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce that the
Company has invested GBP0.7 million in fermentation-derived palm
oil company Clean Food Group Limited ("CFG"), as part of their
GBP2.3 million Pre Series A funding round, subscribing for
4,249,700 ordinary shares (the "Subscription"). Notable
co-investors include industrial food specialists Doehler Group and
Alianza Team. The investment was made using cash from the Company's
own resources.
Jim Mellon, Executive Director of Agronomics and Co-Chairman of
CFG also participated in the funding round with a GBP50,000
investment on the same terms. AIM traded SEED Innovations Limited,
of which Jim Mellon has a 6.95% holding, also invested in the round
on identical terms.
Agronomics previously invested GBP900,500 in CFG in June 2022.
In total, Agronomics will now hold 30.31% of the equity capital on
a fully diluted basis. Subject to audit, Agronomics will carry this
position in its accounts at a book value of GBP6.97 million,
including an unrealised gain on cost of GBP5.37 million, an IRR of
385% and a MOIC of 3.92x. The holding in CFG will represent
approximately 4.33% of the last published Net Asset Value of the
Company (30.06.23), including estimated post-balance sheet date
adjustments.
-- CFG produces palm oil using a non-GMO microorganism which is
already being used on an industrial scale in the wine industry
meaning that the regulatory pathway in the UK and EU is anticipated
to be less stringent.
-- Capital raised from this pre-series round will enable CFG to
accelerate the scale-up of its technology platform, ahead of the
planned completion of its Series A funding next year to further
develop its technology for production at a commercial scale, with
the funds supporting the construction of a new manufacturing
facility in the UK.
Jim Mellon, Executive Director of Agronomics and Co-Chairman of
CFG, commented:
"Agronomics' portfolio speaks to the breadth of disruption
emerging from biomanufacturing on conventional agriculture and
beyond. This fundraise marks an important milestone for Clean Food
Group in the mission to drive transformative changes across the
food industry by providing an alternative to palm oil in food and
cosmetic production. This funding takes CFG a step closer to
commercialisation as we continue to unlock the potential for a
future where our food choices will be more sustainable."
Since this Subscription is considered a Substantial Transaction
under AIM Rule 12, this announcement requires certain disclosures
under Schedule Four. CFG is an early-stage company with no revenues
with operating costs of approximately GBP0.1 million per month, and
total assets as at 31 December 2022 of GBP1.6 million, including
cash or near cash of GBP1.3 million with no material
liabilities.
The full announcement is set out below without any material
changes:
UK food-tech business Clean Food Group announces additional
GBP2.3m funding to scale operations in advance of Series A
GBP10m of funding to date to develop Company's sustainable oils
and fats technology
Industrial giants Doehler Group and Alianza Team invest and
confirm strategic collaborations
London, 14 August 2023: Pioneering UK-based biotech business
Clean Food Group has announced a further GBP2.3 million in funding
to accelerate the commercialisation of its sustainable oils and
fats technology. International investment has come from industrial
food specialists Doehler Group and Alianza Team as the global food
industry looks to invest in healthier and more sustainable food
choices for future generations. Agronomics, the leading listed
investment company focussed on Cellular Agriculture, and SEED
Innovations Ltd, the AIM-listed fund focused on investments in
global health opportunities, have also shown their continued
support and participated in the latest funding round.
Capital raised from this funding will enable Clean Food Group to
accelerate the scale-up of its technology platform while advancing
critical regulatory and commercial pathways. Clean Food Group
expects to complete a Series A funding in 2024, by which time the
business will have validated the technology at a commercial scale
and have a clear line of sight to near term revenue generation. The
business will raise funds at Series A to support the build out of a
commercial scale manufacturing facility.
In addition to the collaboration agreement with Alianza Team,
announced by the Company on 8 August 2023, Clean Food Group also
recently signed a services agreement with Doehler Group, designed
to rapidly scale its fermentation process to a commercial level,
and enable the manufacture of product batches required for
regulatory approval for Cosmetics and Food applications. The
scale-up process with Doehler is now well advanced, with a
successful fermentation run at 1,000 litres recently completed; the
manufacture of product batches for the regulatory approvals will be
completed later this year.
Additionally, in 2023, Clean Food Group strengthened its
Operational team with the hires of Dr. James Mercer, Head of
Manufacturing and Scale-up, and Andrea Cattaruzza as Head of
Product. James will be responsible for the scale-up of the
Company's technology and brings over 25 years of experience in
industrial fermentation and scale-up of alternative proteins,
having previously held senior operational roles at Quorn, Croda,
and DuPont, amongst others. Andrea brings 30 years of experience
from Mars Global Chocolate, most recently as Director of Science.
Andrea will drive Clean Food Group's product strategy, developing
high performance, sustainable ingredients for commercial
partners.
Clean Food Group Co-founder and CEO Alex Neves says, "We are
delighted with the rapid progress the business has made in the past
year. The successful conclusion of this current funding round
validates the important strides our business is taking in solving
critical sustainability and supply chain challenges facing our food
and cosmetic manufacturer customers. We are now in a great position
to validate our technology at a commercial scale, advance our
regulatory pathways and develop our growing list of commercial
partners in advance of our Series A next year".
Clean Food Group's technology platform is the result of eight
years of pioneering research led by Professor Chris Chuck,
Technical Lead at Clean Food Group. The proprietary technology
platform uses proven, scalable yeast strains and fermentation
technology and uses food waste as its food source to deliver
sustainable alternatives to traditional oil and fat
ingredients.
About Clean Food Group
Clean Food Group is a UK-based food-tech business delivering
sustainable oils and fats solutions to the world's food and
cosmetics manufacturers, with the mission to deliver scalable,
healthier, competitively priced ingredients that have a positive
impact on the economic, environmental, and social health of the
planet.
Clean Food Group is founded by a team with key experience in
growing bio-tech, food industry and retail businesses supported by
established venture capital and family office investors with a
track record supporting fast-growth start-up companies in highly
regulated industries. Clean Food Group's proprietary technology
platform has been developed as a result of 8 years of pioneering
research by Professor Chris Chuck, technical lead at Clean Food
Group, and the University of Bath.
About Agronomics
Agronomics is the leading listed venture capital firm with a
focus on cellular agriculture. The Company has established a
portfolio of over 20 companies at the Pre-Seed to Series C stage in
this rapidly advancing sector. It seeks to secure minority stakes
in companies owning technologies with defensible intellectual
property that offer new ways of producing food and materials with a
focus on products historically derived from animals. These
technologies are driving a major disruption in agriculture,
offering solutions to improve sustainability, as well as addressing
human health, animal welfare and environmental damage. This
disruption will decouple supply chains from the environment and
animals, as well as being fundamental to feeding the world's
expanding population.
About Cellular Agriculture
Cellular Agriculture is the production of agriculture products
directly from cells, as opposed to raising an animal for slaughter
or growing crops. This encompasses cell culture to produce
cultivated meat and materials, and fermentation processes that
harness a combination of molecular biology, synthetic biology,
tissue engineering and biotechnology to massively simplify
production methods in a sustainable manner.
Over the coming decades, the source of the world's food supply
traditionally derived from conventional agriculture is going to
change dramatically. We have already witnessed the first wave of
this shift with the consumer adoption of plant-based alternative
proteins but today, we are on the cusp of an even bigger wave of
change. This is being facilitated by advances in cellular
agriculture. This change is necessary, given scientists' claims
that if we maintain existing animal protein consumption patterns,
then we will not meet the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting
warming to 1.5 .
AT Kearney, a global consultancy firm, projects that cultivated
meat's market share will reach 35% by 2040. This combined with the
Good Food Institute's estimate that a US $1.8 trillion investment
will be required in order to produce just 10% of the world's
protein using this technology, means that we are on the cusp of a
multi-decade flow of capital to build out manufacturing facilities.
Funding in the field of cellular agriculture is accelerating,
however, still, less than US$ 5 billion has been invested worldwide
since the industry's inception in 2016.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014, as
it forms part of UK Domestic Law by virtue of the European Union
(Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of this announcement,
this inside information is now considered to be in the public
domain.
For further information please contact:
Agronomics Beaumont Canaccord Cenkos Peterhouse SEC Newgate
Limited Cornish Genuity Securities Capital
Limited Limited Plc Limited
The Company Nomad Joint Broker Joint Joint Broker Public Relations
Broker
========== ============ ============= =============== =============================
Richard Reed Roland Andrew Giles Lucy Williams Bob Huxford
Denham Eke Cornish Potts Balleny Charles George Esmond
James Harry Rees Michael Goodfellow Anthony Hughes
Biddle Alex Aylen Johnson Alice Cho
(Head of
Equities)
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+44 (0) 1624 +44 (0) +44 (0) +44 (0) +44 (0)
639396 207 628 207 523 207 397 207 469
info@agronomics.im 3396 8000 8900 0936 agronomics@secnewgate.co.uk
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