ENOUGH, the food technology startup pioneering high-scale sustainable protein production, has raised €40 million in growth funding co-led by World Fund, one of Europe’s leading climate tech VC, and leading food tech investor CPT Capital which continued its commitment. Other previous investors, including AXA IM Alts through the Axa Impact Fund, HAL Investments through 280ppm, Onassis Group through Olympic Investments Inc, Tailored Solutions and Scottish Enterprise also followed on.
Founded in 2015, with the mission to serve the world’s growing demand for sustainable protein, ENOUGH produces ABUNDA® mycoprotein, fermenting fungi using renewable feedstocks to produce alternative ingredient proteins at scale. This transformative ingredient will be used in alternative meat and dairy products sold in leading supermarkets and fast-food brands around the world through an array of partnerships, such as with M&S and Unilever.
Jim Laird, founder and CEO of ENOUGH, said: “ENOUGH has made great strides in the past few years to launch our new factory in the Netherlands and scale up to work with customers across the UK and Europe. With this new funding, we will accelerate that growth. The alternative protein market is a multi-billion dollar opportunity, and the ethical and environmental reasons to embrace non-animal protein sources are more pressing than ever. We’re delighted to be leading this food revolution with our proprietary ABUNDA mycoprotein. We’re excited to welcome our new investors World Fund and look forward to working closely with them on the next phase of growth for ENOUGH.”
ENOUGH has developed a pioneering technology that enables large-scale sustainable protein production by creating a core protein ingredient to power alternative meat products across the world. Its signature mycoprotein is created by feeding fungi with sugars from sustainably sourced grain which is then fermented in a similar production to beer or wine. This creates ABUNDA, a food that is high in protein and fibre, contains all nine essential amino acids and crucially, boasts a neutral flavour and meat-like texture that can be used to create plant-based meat, fish and dairy products. ABUNDA is up to 15 times more efficient than protein from beef thanks to ENOUGH’s proprietary technology and zero-waste production – using up to 93% less water, 97% less feed and causing 97% fewer CO2 emissions than protein from beef, which also makes it more affordable to produce.
ENOUGH recently opened a first-of-its-kind protein factory in Sas van Gent, Netherlands, to create ABUNDA at scale. The factory is co-located alongside a Cargill facility which ensures the most efficient feed source and supports the zero-waste strategy of ENOUGH’s product. Initially, the factory will produce 10,000 metric tonnes of ABUNDA per year, with plans to scale up to produce more than 60,000 tonnes per year – the equivalent of growing one cow’s worth of protein every two minutes.
Craig Douglas, Founding Partner at World Fund, commented: “We’re delighted to be supporting ENOUGH as they scale up to become the global leader in sustainable protein. The company is tackling crucial bottlenecks in the creation of sustainable protein, whilst using fewer resources and maintaining a zero-waste process, which is enabling ENOUGH to have a lower carbon footprint compared to other plant-based protein sources, whilst producing at scale and providing supply security to a growing market. It helps that the products featuring ABUNDA are delicious too. ENOUGH’s work has the potential to help combat food scarcity, reduce the use of resources in the food industry and reduce emissions on a global scale and we look forward to working with Jim and the team to help them achieve this.”
It is this efficient and scalable technology, combined with a zero-waste approach, that attracted Europe’s leading climate investor to back ENOUGH. World Fund backs entrepreneurs building climate technology solutions that have the potential to save significant amounts of CO2 every year.
Harry Kalms, CPT Capital, added: “We are excited to continue supporting the ENOUGH team to deliver high-quality, alternative protein solutions supporting change in the global food system. Since our first investment 5 years ago, ENOUGH has stood out as a company that is poised to make a meaningful positive impact on today’s unsustainable food system. Now, with the completion of their first industrial production facility and this growth financing round, ENOUGH is leveraging its strong foundations to move into a new phase of large-scale commercialisation.”
The new growth funding brings the total capital raised by ENOUGH to over €95 million. This will enable the company to scale up capacity at its factory in the Netherlands to serve growing customer demand for ABUNDA mycoprotein whilst also growing its teams across its offices in Glasgow, London and at Sas van Gent. The company aims to grow over one million tonnes of ABUNDA cumulatively by 2032, the equivalent of replacing 5 million cows or over 1 billion chickens, to feed a growing global population and tackle the unsustainable impact of traditional protein farming.
