PoLoPo seeks seed funding, partners with CSM Ingredients to crack egg on commercialization efforts

Earlier this year, PoLoPo launched its molecular farming platform SuperAA, which teaches plants to convert starches and other metabolites to proteins through genetic engineering, Maya Sapir-Mir, co-founder and CEO of PoLoPo, told FoodNavigator-USA.

PoLoPo focused first on egg proteins, given the volatility of the egg market due to avian flu​, and ovalbumin “is one of the most nutritious proteins in nature,” Sapir-Mir explained.

“Egg protein is our first candidate. PoLoPo has the ability to switch the proteins. ... We can produce many other proteins in our system, but we chose egg protein first because it has a huge market. The food industry is already looking to replace egg protein,” Sapir-Mir said.

Food-tech must balance ‘big dreams’ & ‘the rich technologies that can actually work’

Now, PoLoPo is seeking investors for a seed round, following a pre-seed round of $2.3 million in 2023 led by Foodlabs with participation from CPT Capital, Plug and Play Ventures, Milk & Honey Ventures and others. PoLoPo will use the funds to expand in the US market, she explained.

In June, PoLoPo submitted its SuperAA platform​ for Regulatory Status Review at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the company explained.

PoLoPo will use the seed round to produce more samples, as it searches for commercial agreements, Sapir-Mir said. Additionally, PoLoPo is "also aiming to move at least the production — but maybe the whole company — ... to the US," with the funding, she added.

PoLoPo raised its pre-seed funding “right after the big hype” of food-tech but did not raise a “crazy valuation,” which helped the company navigate challenges the alt-protein sector felt in recent years​, including lower levels of funding, Sapir-Mir explained.

Additionally, PoLoPo’s manufacturing upstream process “is very cheap,” since it does not rely on expensive bioreactors, Sapir-Mir said. Scaling up production is as simple as adding another field of potatoes, which is a relatively cheap crop to grow, Sapir-Mir noted.

“I truly believe that the companies that are struggling now ─ most of them or part of them ─ will be okay. ... We need the balance between the big dreams and the crazy valuation and the rich technologies that can actually work,” she elaborated.  

PoLoPo partners with CSM ingredients to bolster bakery innovation

In October, PoLoPo and ingredient tech platform provider CSM Ingredients signed a memorandum of understanding to develop ways to use the ovalbumin powder in bakery applications, as the bakery industry feels the pressures from a volatile egg market because of avian flu, Sapir-Mir explained.

“We were accepted to the CSM Ingredients Accelerated program. It is an 18-month program where we actually can have access to consult with our scientists to work in the facility, use their knowledge for applications for analytics [and] for functionality tests ─ the sky is the limit. And of course, the main thing for us is to work together on an application, our product, and maybe in the future, to sign a commercial agreement,” she elaborated.

PoLoPo's ovalbumin powder whips, gels and binds just like animal-based egg proteins, making them ideal for bakery applications, Sapir-Mir pointed out.

Alt-proteins are often more expensive than their animal-based counterparts, but since potatoes are cheap and PoLoPo does not need to rely on expensive bioreactors like in cell-cultivated meat, the company expects to achieve price parity with egg white protein powder in about five years, Sapir-Mir explained.

“According to our business model, once scaled around 2030, we will beat even the egg white protein powder prices, and of course, I think that we are also talking about an industry that the prices will always go up and up,” she added.