TIDMANIC
RNS Number : 1953Q
Agronomics Limited
26 October 2021
26th October 2021
Agronomics Limited
("Agronomics" or the "Company")
Agronomics EUR3 million Participation in Solar Foods Bridge
Round
Agronomics, the leading listed company focused on the field of
cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce it has participated
for EUR3 million (the "Subscription") in the EUR6 million Bridge
Round for investee company Solar Foods Oy ("Solar Foods") in the
form of a Convertible Loan Note ("CLN"). This follows the
announcement that the State-owned Finnish Climate Fund has invested
EUR10 million to aid the build out of Solar Food's demonstration
facility. Also joining this round are existing investors CPT
Capital and Happiness Capital Limited and new investor, LOSA
Group.
The CLN is expected to convert to give Agronomics an approximate
equity ownership of 5.80 per cent, inclusive of its prior
investment announced in September 2020 . In the past year, Solar
Foods has made strong R&D progress and is now focused on
building its new demonstration facility that is set to be
operational early 2023. Solar Foods' novel technology has recently
been recognised by NASA as part of their Deep Space Food Challenge
- looking for new solutions to feed astronauts.
Jim Mellon, Non-executive Director of Agronomics commented:-
"Recently, our team visited Solar Foods in Finland and were very
impressed by the operation's scientific rigour, and the potential
of Solein as a sustainable protein source to meet future protein
demand. We look forward to the build out of the demonstration
facility"
Pasi Vainikka, CEO and co-founder of Solar Foods, added:-
"Solein can be used in a wide variety of foods, supplementing
the nutritional profile of plant-based products and enabling them
to replace animal-based foods without compromising nutritional
value."
The full announcement is set out below with no material changes
or adjustments:
"The new Solar Foods production facility, called Factory 01, is
set to begin construction in Q4 2021 in Vantaa, Finland. The
company estimates that the commercial Solein(R) production will
begin in the first half of 2023 and Factory 01 will serve as Solar
Foods' platform for scaling up production.
Factory 01 will offer the food industry and the public a
completely new perspective into what the future of food will be. At
the facility's Experience Hub, visitors can learn how Solein is
made and how it can be used in a broad variety of foods.
Solar Foods' innovative protein powder is a first-of-its-kind
food ingredient. Solein can be used in a wide variety of foods,
supplementing the nutritional profile of plant-based products. So
far, Solar Foods has developed more than 20 different types of food
products that utilise Solein in varying proportions.
By removing agriculture from the equation, Solein is set to
revolutionise food production. With land use and agriculture making
up 24% of global emissions, the global carbon footprint could be
significantly reduced with the large-scale adoption of Solein.
Solein's qualities and its use in different foods have been
tested in a pilot factory for nearly two years. The new Factory 01
will enable a new scale of operations, allowing Solar Foods to
commercialise Solein and chart its way towards full-scale
industrial production.
'Tectonic shifts are happening at our dinner tables'
Solar Foods, founded in 2017 as a spin-off of VTT Technical
Research Centre of Finland and LUT University, has achieved rapid
growth. The company's CEO and co-founder Pasi Vainikka sees Solar
Foods as being on the crest of a wave of technologies that will
change our perception of food. Even the everyday act of eating will
be a force for a more sustainable planet.
'Today we're at a similar crossroads with the food system as we
were in the mid-1980s with information and communication
technology', Vainikka explains. 'VC funds and new companies are
investing billions of dollars to reinvent an entire sector in the
global economy: the food industry. Tectonic shifts are happening at
our dinner tables. The future of food is here and happening as we
speak.'
'We need more sustainable ways to feed the world. What we eat
has never been static: humanity has seen food revolutions from the
days of the first hunter-gatherers all the way to the unsustainable
industrial system of today. The fundamentals of food production
have, however, always stayed the same. We're now in the middle of
the fourth agricultural revolution that is finally changing those
fundamentals, and Solein is a part of it. Factory 01 will lead the
way in taking the world's most sustainable protein global', he
emphasises.
Solar Foods has made its vision a reality quickly by developing
and testing its groundbreaking protein. Now the company is bringing
the world's most sustainable protein to our plates with its first
factory and taking Solein to market. The next food revolution is
here.
About Solar Food s
Solar Foods produces protein using air-captured carbon dioxide
and electricity. Solein production, independent of weather and
climate conditions, liberates global protein production from the
limits of traditional agriculture. Solein can be produced in harsh
environments, such as desert and Arctic areas or even outer space,
where traditional food production is not possible. Solar Foods was
founded in Espoo, Finland, in 2017 by Dr Pasi Vainikka, Dr
Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, Sami Holmström, Jari Tuovinen, Professor Jero
Ahola, and Janne Mäkelä as a spinoff from VTT Technical Research
Centre of Finland and LUT University. www.solarfoods.fi .
About Agronomics
Agronomics is a leading listed alternative proteins company with
a focus on cellular agriculture. The Company has established a
portfolio of 15 companies from the Pre-Seed to Series B 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. A full list of Agronomics' portfolio
companies is available at https://agronomics.im/ .
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 $1.8 trillion investment
will be required in order to produce just 10% of the world's
protein using this technology, means that we are on the cusp of a
multi-decade flow of capital to build out manufacturing facilities.
Funding in the field of cellular agriculture is accelerating,
however still less than US$ 1 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 Cenkos Peterhouse
Limited Cornish Limited Securities Capital TB Cardew
Plc Limited
The Company Nomad Joint Broker Joint Broker Public Relations
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Richard Reed Roland Cornish Giles Balleny Lucy Williams Ed Orlebar
Denham Eke James Biddle Michael Johnson Charles Goodfellow Joe McGregor
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+44 (0) 20 7930
0777
+44 (0) 1624 +44 (0) 7738
639396 +44 (0) 207 +44 (0) 207 +44 (0) 207 724 630
info@agronomics.im 628 3396 397 8900 469 0936 agronomics@tbcardew.com
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