Food tech startup Eden Brew raises $6.9 million to launch dairy-free ice cream

Sydney-based animal-free dairy company Eden Brew has raised $6.9 million (USD$5 million) in an ongoing funding round that will see its science-backed food technology launch a new ice cream product.

A joint venture between dairy co-operative Norco, CSIRO and Main Sequence, which contributed to the raise alongside new US-based investor Digitalis Ventures, Eden Brew is also looking to scale its milk production and in-house science team with the fresh funds.

Eden Brew co-founder and CEO Jim Fader said the company's north star was “creating animal-free milk that can meet the doubling protein demand by 2050 sustainably and is just as delicious as cow’s milk”.

Launched last year, Eden Brew has used science from the CSIRO to develop a fermentation process capable of producing all six proteins identical to cow’s milk in a lab environment.

Fader notes the company is also making “rapid progress” developing dairy protein molecule four-casein micelle - which gives cow’s milk its nutritional carrying capacity, heat stability and sensory qualities – to scale.

“While there are numerous milk alternatives, they cannot sustainably meet future demand and don’t achieve the sensory or processability properties of cow’s milk,” he said.

“Our natural method of fermentation future-proofs dairy’s place at every kitchen table, in every cafe, and every ice cream cone.” 

Main Sequence partner and Eden Brew chair Phil Morle added that “precision fermentation is already enhancing food production, not just in cost, but in sustainability and supply chain resilience.”

“The result will be an improvement in the efficiency of current industrial food production that meets the demand of 10 billion people by 2050.

“When we build with biology, we can make nature-identical building blocks without the animal – at lower cost with less environmental impact and still meet surging protein demand.”

The company's ice cream product is slated to launch in late 2023 or 2024.

“We believe science and technology can fill many critical gaps in regards to global nutrition,” Digitalis Ventures partner Steve Allen said.

“Eden Brew is focused on new ways of creating food that nourishes our bodies and planet. For this very reason, we are proud to be on Eden Brew’s growth journey.”