The past year has been a year of capital influx into the new protein industry. Since 2019, with the listing of Beyond Meat, the new protein industry has begun to receive attention from innovative forces and capital. According to GFI estimates, alternative protein companies have raised nearly $6 billion in investment over the past decade (2010-2020). Since 2019, a large number of plant-based meat start-ups have emerged in China, and traditional food companies have also taken advantage of this storm to seek industrial upgrading.
In 2021, the new protein field has attracted the attention of many media and investors, and various innovative products have gradually rolled out at the B and C ends. In 2022, we will witness how the new protein industry can be optimized and upgraded. Over the past year, we have interviewed many new protein companies and investment institutions, and they have provided us with invaluable information. In this article, 35 Bucket will use the accumulation of the new protein field in 2021 to take stock of the investment events of the new protein industry in 2021, analyze the problems and optimization solutions faced by the new protein industry, followed by the analysis of the new protein field practitioner portrait, and finally we will provide 3 innovative cases for practitioners to refer to. The following table shows the financing events of 35 buckets combing in the field of new protein in China in 2021. (If there is any omission, please contact the author of this article)
Table: 2021 Investment and Financing Events in the New Protein Field (in no particular order)
First, the | Why is capital sought after but consumers not paid?
According to the Boston Consulting Group, by 2035, the market size of alternative proteins is expected to reach $290 billion, of which plant-based products will reach a market share of 69%, followed by microbial fermented proteins (22%) and cell culture proteins (9%). With the heat of the new protein industry, some problems have gradually surfaced, and below, we will disassemble these problems one by one and analyze the solutions.
The fundamental question – will the meat industry be replaced?
In the era of scientific and technological innovation, it is still difficult to forget the delicious taste of meat. If you want to compete with traditional meat products and soy products, you must provide competitive products, "delicious" is the first motivation for the Z generation to buy, but also an important driving force for food companies to continuously innovate, enterprises can optimize the product's grease, flavor substances, binders and other aspects.
(1) Oils: At present, most companies in the market use coconut oil as a substitute for fat, due to its single physical and chemical properties, it is difficult to compare with real animal fats in terms of taste and flavor, the market is looking for innovative solutions without animal fats, and Yali Yale-China Bio mentioned below is the innovator of this track.
(2) Flavor substances: plant-based products in the hydrolysis of the action will have a bitter taste or bean smell, Beijing Technology and Business University professor Li Jian believes that activated carbon adsorption, cyclodextrin embedding, heat treatment, flavor masking method and other methods can be used to remove, at the same time he also proposed a solution at the raw material end - to select a new soybean variety with fat oxidase deficiency.
(3) Binder: Binder is very important for the taste of replicating meat. According to Gu Fu, at present, there are relatively few domestic research on plant meat binders, and there are many directions that can be explored, such as the development of new adhesives that can better inhibit thermal degradation to maintain the integrity of plant meat products when cooking.
When it comes to whether new proteins will replace the traditional meat industry, some people think that the taste of meat has been engraved in human genes and can never be changed, while some people will feel that as humans have more and more contact with plant-based products, people's taste preferences will change, more inclined to the taste of plant-based diets, and eventually completely replace the traditional meat industry.
Xie Keying, vice president of strategy and operations at Plantator, has a milder view, arguing that "in the end it will be a coexistence system, not a complete replacement." Because the entire food system is currently developing in a sustainable direction, the traditional meat industry is also constantly optimizing its management methods.
Yang Ziliang, an entrepreneur in the field of cell meat and CEO of "CellX", also believes that people's eating habits are difficult to change, and therefore turned to cell culture meat entrepreneurship, he told us: "Compared with plant meat and fermented meat, I think cell meat is the ultimate solution, because changing people's eating habits is difficult to change our production mode." ”
What are the limitations of the environmental narrative?
One of the reasons for the emergence of the new protein industry is the unsustainability of industrial farming. Chickens and pigs eat 75% of the world's processed feed, and on average 5 to 6 kg of feed can be converted into 1 kg of live pigs or chickens. Cattle and sheep, for their high levels of methane through hiccups and farting, contribute 14.5% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and occupy more than half of the world's agricultural land.
Most businesses claim to be coming up with solutions to such problems, and consumers don't seem to be paying for it. But the problem should not simply boil down to the fact that market education is inadequate, and when companies do so, they are to some extent putting themselves in a condescending position and looking down on consumers. Consumers will not recognize the company with a good story, but only by the product. "Daofuzi Incubator" is an incubator focusing on the early stages of alternative protein, and its founder Zhang Tao once told us: "What I mean by 'turning Chinese consumers into part of the environmental protection solution' does not mean imposing the demand of environmental protection on them and requiring them to buy these products from the moral level, but to think from the perspective of consumers and pay attention to the persuasiveness of the product itself, because consumers ultimately recognize the taste, price and convenience of the product." ”
We got a similar answer from consumer data, according to the article "Chinese Consumers' Attitudes and Potential Acceptance toward Artificial Meat", after surveying more than 4600 consumers in China, the researchers found that more than half of the population (52.9%) are willing to try alternative proteins, mainly because of food safety and nutrition, rather than animal welfare and environmental protection. In addition, the article also shows that nearly 90% of respondents said that if the cost is lower than traditional similar products, they are willing to try to grow meat.
Being environmentally friendly is a good reason but not practical, so what the new protein industry has to do is provide more reasons for consumers.
How to balance marketing and R&D? - Good products are fundamental
This is a problem that many startups face. Regarding marketing, Thomas Kolopolos once wrote in the book "Circle Effect": "In the face of the strong rise of the group, only by understanding the business logic of the main consumer force and knowing how to gather this generation of young people can future business succeed." "In the post-Internet era, the kind of marketing war that competes for the attention of the public has lost its appeal, and new protein companies should explore more strategies to gather consumers."
But the fundamental problem never changes – good products make real change. Thankfully, almost all new protein entrepreneurs emphasize that the product is the most important thing. While constantly exploring new marketing methods, they do not relax in the research and development of technology. Jiang Tao, the founder of "Except Meat", stressed in an interview, "In fact, I think that everyone in this industry should first pay attention to product strength and technology, so that they can have a voice in the industry." Capital focus on the field of alternative protein This is the trend of the times, but plant meat brands must do a good job of their own products in order to allow more Chinese to accept alternative protein products. ”
In terms of policy supervision, how can enterprises reach consensus with the government?
Environmental issues are part of government policy, so the government needs the support of businesses, and businesses need the support of the government.
In the past, the most discussed issue in the relationship between government and enterprise was the issue of supervision. Many times the controversy in this regard is that the communication between the two sides is not enough, so there is a lack of room for consensus. Mr. Feng Wenxu once mentioned in the "BIV China Alternative Protein Seminar" that the new protein industry should take the initiative to communicate with the regulatory authorities, "In fact, the regulatory authorities also hope to have a deep understanding of these latest industry developments, but the regulatory authorities are often not suitable for active contact with the industry." ”
In this regard, perhaps The New Capitol can give us some experience. Just in 2021, the new protein industry ushered in an exciting news, the cell meat company "Eat Just" received approval from the New Kapi Food Department (SFA) to sell cell meat products locally, thus becoming the first country in the world to approve the sale of cell meat, which has always been known for its strict regulation. This is seen by many as a "new milestone in the history of cell meat" and provides a model for other governments. At present, China has not yet introduced relevant policies, but during the two sessions in May 2020, Academician Sun Baoguo has proposed to increase investment in the research and development of cell-bred meat, and establish and improve laws and regulations to take cell-cultured meat as a strategic deployment to solve China's food security problems.
What are the practitioners of the new protein field?
If you want to make a portrait of the practitioners of new proteins, then these labels will definitely come to everyone's eyes: returnees, vegetarians, women.
"Returnees": Through the survey, we found that most of the practitioners of the new protein have studied or worked abroad. The concept of the "protein revolution" is no longer a new concept abroad, and it is sought after by animal activists, environmentalists and health-conscious people. Many Chinese who work or live abroad see the future food trends involved in this and try to bring these technologies and ideas to China. Researchers who have worked in new protein companies have also naturally joined China's new protein industry. For example, "plantists" have included researchers from Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods to help advance the application of high-moisture extrusion technology to process wet far-drawn protein in plant-based meat products.
"Vegetarian": This is a profound reflection of "how a small group of people have driven the world to change", "Flash Power" founder Hong Xiaoqi once told us that she watched a documentary called "Citizen of the Earth" in high school, deeply felt the harm of industrial farming on animals, since then began to adhere to vegetarianism, after graduation began to explore plant-based business models. We also found people who got started because of their love of meat, "Haofood" is such a team, they love the taste of meat, but from a health and environmental point of view aware of the dangers of traditional animal husbandry, so they want to help foodies reduce meat consumption without losing the pleasure of eating their familiar dishes. Although many entrepreneurs are from the perspective of vegetarianism, their products are not limited to vegetarians, but hope to be promoted to a wider group, which also meets the definition of communication power in consumer goods.
"Women": The Vegan Women Summit (VWS) released a shocking figure in March 2021, with less than 3% of investment money going to female founders. The good news is that in China, we have seen many influential female entrepreneurs in the field of new protein, Wu Yanzi of "Zhou Zero", Hong Xiaoqi of "Flash Power", Carrie Chan of "Avant" and so on. Zhu Jiahui, the founder of the plant yogurt brand "Coconut Yogurt", said in a conversation with 35 Dou: "Women do have their own ways, but perhaps because the framework given by society makes them take less of a step in entrepreneurship, so we do not have as many entrepreneurial resources around us as men." If more women can take the first step, we can grow up together and gradually pull a little closer to men. "It is expected that more female entrepreneurs will emerge in the new protein industry in the future."
Second, the game-breaker | High-profile start-ups
In 2021, the field of new proteins has seen an influx of innovators. Below, we have selected 3 new protein companies as cases to glimpse the innovation trend of the new protein industry. Among them, "CellX" develops cell culture meat, hoping to achieve protein production in vitro through bioengineering without slaughtering animals; "Lanjia Bio" aims to develop delicious, high-quality natural mushroom hyphae and precision fermented meat protein; "Yali Bio" aims to use synthetic plant-based fat products to solve the taste problem of plant-based products.
1、CellX
Pictured: Cell culture meat developed by CellX
Founded in 2020, CellX is a startup in the field of cell agriculture that hopes to bioengineering and produce proteins in vitro without slaughtering animals. A number of prototypes of cellular meat products have been developed, including structural chunks of meat produced by scaffolds and 3D bioprinting. Its founder, Yang Ziliang, told 35Dou that its current research and development focus is on China's bulk consumer goods , pork, which will gradually migrate to other high-value-added products in the future.
According to Blue Horizon Corp's forecasts, the cell-based meat market is expected to reach $140 billion by 2030. Nanjing's Zhou Zi Future, Shanghai's CellX and Hong Kong's Avant are the only three cell meat companies in China that will each receive tens of millions of yuan in financing in 2021. Foreign companies with remarkable achievements in the field of cell meat include Future Meat, Meatable, Aleph Farms, BlueNalu and so on. At present, most of the head enterprises and start-ups at home and abroad are focused on plant proteins, and the marketization of plant-based products is more obvious, while cell culture meat is relatively niche, and most of them are still in the laboratory research and development stage.
In terms of costs that are most concerned by the public, Yang Ziliang, CEO of CellX, responded that the cost reduction can be achieved by developing serum-free cultures and synthetic biology technologies to produce growth factors, and the team has reduced the cost by 5 times, and plans to reduce it by 10 times in 2022, and achieve the same price as animal meat by 2025. The whole process of cell culture meat is a super clean and sterile environment, and the growth factors used are also micrograms, which do not involve the hormones and antibiotics and infectious diseases of traditional meat.
The team currently consists of 25 people and consists of scientists from interdisciplinary backgrounds in biomedicine and food science. Its CEO Yang Ziliang is a former Consultant of the Boston Consulting Group, and the product leader Xiang Ning is a Ph.D. from Purdue University, who has conducted cell culture meat research and development in the laboratory of David Kaplan, an academician of the American Academy of Engineering, and has more than 10 years of experience in food research and development. Binlu Huang, Head of Cell R&D, is a Ph.D. from Tsinghua University and has 6 years of experience in the immunotherapy industry before joining CellX, and more than 15 years of experience in the field of cell biology. Ran Liu holds an MBA from Stanford University and is a serial entrepreneur in the field of science and technology.
CellX, a cell culture meat company, has completed an angel round of financing of tens of millions of yuan in early 2021, led by Zhen Fund, and followed by Yunjiu Capital, Jianfeng, Lever VC and so on. This is CellX's second round of financing in six months, following last year's multi-million yuan seed round.
2. Lanjia Biology
Founded in May 2021 in Qingdao, Shandong Province, Lanjia Biotech aims to develop delicious, high-quality natural mushroom hyphae and precision fermented meat protein, and is the first company in Asia to combine real meat protein and single-cell protein that does not contain animal cells. According to 35 buckets, Lanjia Bio has a complete set of fermentation pilot equipment, from 2L to 200L fermentation tanks. In addition, we have developed a new, patented, solid-state fermentation tank in-house.
The company's CEO, ChenFeng Lu, holds a Ph.D. in Food Microbiology from the University of Wisconsin and has over 10 years of experience in synthetic biology and commercialized fermented products at Cargill and Yield10. He told us that the technical path of fermentation was chosen because fermented meat has better taste and nutritional value than plant meat; compared with cell culture meat, fermented meat costs less and markets are faster. In general, fermented meat has the advantages of low cost, high safety and short growth cycle.
Figure: Lanjia Biotechnology path diagram
Lanjia Bio is positioned as a B2B platform company that sells its proprietary laboratory-grown animal protein and hyphal protein to downstream food manufacturers, pet food companies, restaurant chains, etc. It plans to become a leader in fermented proteins in China within 2 to 5 years, and will start mass production of fungal hyphal meat products and fermentation-based pet food ingredients from 2022 to 2023, with positive cash flow expected in 2025.
3. Yali Bio Yale-China Biology
Founded in March 2021 in Silicon Valley, Yali Bio aims to use synthetic plant-based fat products to solve the taste problem of plant-based products, get rid of dependence on products such as coconut oil and palm oil, and optimize the plant-based industry.
In September 2021, it announced its participation in illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN), the head sequencing company in the United States, for the third round of global funding cycle, becoming one of the seven new genomics companies selected. Yali Bio is the only food technology company to be selected.
Yulin Lu, founder and CEO of Yali Bio, is a Ph.D. from Purdue University and has been working in the field of alternative proteins for more than 10 years, including 2015-2020 as a senior engineering director of Impossible Foods, a U.S. plant-based meat company, developing plant-derived artificial meat and eggs. Co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor Peng Xu is a Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Rensselaer Institute of Technology, a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an assistant professor (independent PI) at the University of Maryland from 2016 to 2020, and an associate professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Technion in Guangdong.
The plant-based market has been on fire in China for more than 2 years, but due to taste and price problems, it has not yet formed a certain audience in China. Plant-based businesses often use coconut oil and palm oil as the main alternatives to animal fats, but these alternatives have many problems with themselves. On the one hand, the collection of these tropical products itself faces problems such as deforestation and forced labor, which is contrary to the concept of new protein practitioners; on the other hand, plant meat made of these two oils will seep out of the product during the cooking process, resulting in dry meat, poor taste, and can not replace animal fats. There is no good solution on the market at the moment.
This is exactly the pain point that Yali Bio wants to solve, founder Lu Yulin said: "We hope to use technology as a driving force to break through this pain point and provide high-quality animal meat substitutes and dairy alternatives for the plant-based industry." The core technologies of Yali Bio include synthetic biology and metabolic engineering, the development of oil products in the form of strain fermentation, and the development of different strains for different markets and products. Founder Lu Yulin revealed to 35 Dou that "Yali Bio" is still in the stage of product and strain research and development and process optimization, and is expected to be listed between 2023 and 2024.
The company announced the completion of a multi-million dollar pre-seed round in April 2021 from investors including Accelerator Program, Quiet Capital, UpHonest Capital, and Third Kind Venture Capital. The round will be used for early product development.
Table: "Yali Bio" financing status
In 2021, innovative enterprises and investment institutions in the new protein industry have given us great support, and we have always hoped to "serve decision-making with information" and provide practitioners with as objective and sufficient information as possible. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following organizations for their support to 35 Buckets over the past year: Daofuzi Incubator, Torque China, Gufu, Core Capital, Big Idea Ventures, Flash Power, LIVEKINDLY Collective, Twin Tower Foods, Buller, Goranbia, Mitega, In addition to meat, Zhenzhi yogurt, Little Frog Plantation, Planter, Coconut Yogurt, Haofood, CellX, Lanjia Bio, Zhouzi Future, Yali Bio, Wuxi Valley Meat, v2food, Cu Ding made meat (in no particular order). 35 Bucket will continue to accompany the growth of innovative enterprises in the field of new proteins.
The above is only the 2021 annual inventory of China's new protein industry, please refer to the report "2021 Global Agri-food Innovation Ecology Report" for a more complete combing, which will be released at the IFAE Summit in April 2022, and can also continue to pay attention to the 35 Dou public account, when we will announce the collection method.