Australia’s market for ‘alternative meats’ will soon have the locally-available base ingredients it needs to expand after Woolworths’ venture capital fund joined the investor group backing Sydney-based start-up Harvest B. The Sydney-based start-up makes premium-grade proteins for use as base ingredients in plant-based products.
Harvest B raised $3.5 million in seed funding and a $1 million grant from the Australian Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC) under the Modern Manufacturing Initiative’s Commercialisation stream. It will use the funding to further develop its range of cost-effective, premium plant-based protein ingredients and to cale up production to enable it to supply plant-based product manufacturers across Australia and beyond.
The funding round was led by Woolworths’ venture arm, w23, and Aura, with a gaggle of angel investors also contributing to Harvest B’s haul.
Read the full story in the Australian Financial Review (AFR).
Sources
Woolworths backs $4m funding round in Sydney plant-based meat start-up I Australian Financial Review (AFR)
Manufacturers awarded $3.7 million in grants through commercialisation fund I AuManufacturing
Lead image: Harvest B co-founders and executive team, L to R, Alfred Lo, Kristi Riordan and Werner Fuggersberger. Credit:: Louie Douvis, courtesy of Harvest B