Novel food colouring company closes US$6.4 million seed round

Ingredient biotech startup Michroma has raised US$6.4 million in seed financing, which will help with the commercialisation of its sustainable, natural fungal food colourants.

The billion-dollar food colourants market is trending towards natural ingredients, with many food manufacturers transitioning away from artificial colours to meet health-conscious consumers’ demand for natural ingredient alternatives.

“We are poised to meet consumer demand for healthier and more sustainable food without petroleum-based ingredients,” said Michroma’s CEO and Co-founder, Ricky Cassini.

Michroma’s approach centres on creating fungal biofactories to produce small molecules, such as colours, more efficiently.

“We are leveraging the power and versatility of filamentous fungi with our synbio platform. By combining a unique fungal chassis strain with precision fermentation, we are capable of producing high-value complex molecules with high yields previously unseen in the biotech industry,” said Michroma’s CSO and Co-Founder, Dr Mauricio Braia.

Founded in 2019, Michroma started out by developing a red colourant called Red+, which is temperature-resistant and stable across the food pH system. Such characteristics allow the colours to survive processes like pasteurisation, cooking and extrusion, which are among the most intensive processes for natural dyes.

Following prototyping with food companies, Michroma is negotiating agreements for Red+ with ingredients suppliers for global distribution. It is also planning to submit colour additive petitions to the FDA and EFSA as it continues to scale up.

The financing round was led by Supply Change Capital, a food tech VC backed by 301 INC, the corporate venture capital arm of General Mills. Investors include Be8, backed by Dr. Oetker and CJ CheilJedang, a $23 billion Korean conglomerate that supplies fermentation-based bio-products.

Image caption: iStock.com/OBHH