Finland company secures US$10 million to make bioalbumen

Finland based biotech company Onego Bio earned a US$10 million investment to produce bioalbumen, an animal-free egg protein, through cellular agriculture.

Meredith Johnson Headshot
Courtesy of ALEXCHEONG
Courtesy of ALEXCHEONG
Getty Images/iStockphoto

Finland based biotech company Onego Bio earned a US$10 million investment to produce bioalbumen, an animal-free egg protein, through cellular agriculture

The company will use a fermentation process to create the egg white protein substitute without needing poultry. Amongst the investors are research institution VTT, agriculture company Agronomics Limited and investment firm Maki VC.

Onego Bio plans to build a pilot production pant in Finland over the next few years while working to obtain commercial approvals for an animal-free bioalbumen powder.

Additionally, the company plans to market the product as an ingredient for bakery use, as well as a potential protein supplement to fitness companies.

Maija Itkonen, CEO of Onego Bio, told Food Navigator, “We want to thank VTT and our investors for supporting a technology that is part of a bigger wave of changing people’s perspective on alternative ways of producing food. The time is right to spin out this technology and start manufacturing our product, as consumers are more open to try products that are not animal derived.

VTT’s laboratories and technical teams have cutting edge know-how to develop truly new innovations. We will continue working together with them on the scientific aspects, and together with our investors we simultaneously focus on commercializing the technology.”

Fungus-based egg white alternative

In January 2022, the Future Sustainable Food Systems research group at the University of Helsinki, along with help from VTT, announced the development of a sustainable, fungus-based egg white alternative produced using a low carbon energy method. Because ovalbumin is one of the biggest sources of protein in eggs, VTT used biotechnology to insert the gene that carries the blueprint for ovalbumin into the fungus, Trichoderma reesei. 

The study found that after the fungus has grown for the appropriate amount of time, the mature ovalbumin protein can be split from the fungal cells, then concentrated and dried to form the egg white substitute.

Page 1 of 477
Next Page