De Novo Dairy, Africa’s first precision fermentation company, works on personalized nutrition offering

The start-up, which is based in Cape Town, South Africa, has recently secured seed-stage investment from UM6P Ventures that will enable it to further accelerate the release of its first ever product. The food tech company has also received backing from the likes of Big Idea Ventures, Kale United, Food Ventures and CULT Cult Science Corp, among others.

De Novo Dairy is working on a personalized nutrition product containing cultivated dairy proteins expressed through the company’s uniquely-designed yeast strain. While there is no set launch date yet, the company is hoping to release it sometime in 2023.

“There are many ways to skin the cat in terms of precision fermentation,”De Novo Dairy’s co-founder and CEO Jean Louwrens told DairyReporter. “The way we are producing the protein is very novel. We are also one of the very few companies in the world who are working on these specific proteins. A lot of [competitor companies] are working on whey and casein, which are more cost-effective proteins, but ours are more bioactive and a bit more expensive.”

“When it comes to the actual ingredients, it’s a pretty simple process,” he added“but most of our IP and patents are focused on the actual biotechnology and the modification of the hosts.”

De Novo Dairy’s main focus is currently lactoferrin – an immunity-boosting, iron-binding multifunctional glycoprotein – “but we are in the process of creating a platform from which we can continue to produce other proteins in the future that relate to dairy,”Lawrence explained.

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