Agronomics Limited Announces Solar Foods Completes EUR8m Series B Financing
Solar Foods Completes €8 million Series B FinancingDOUGLAS, ISLE OF MAN / ACCESSWIRE / November 16, 2023 / Agronomics (LSE:ANIC), a leading listed company focused on the field of cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce that portfolio company …
Solar Foods Completes €8 million Series B Financing
DOUGLAS, ISLE OF MAN / ACCESSWIRE / November 16, 2023 / Agronomics (LSE:ANIC), a leading listed company focused on the field of cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce that portfolio company Solar Foods Oy ("Solar Foods") has raised €8 million in a Series B financing round carried out through the Finnish-based investment organizer Springvest Oyj, with participation from existing investors including Happiness Capital. The financing from this Series B round will be used for continued building and ramping up production of their single cell protein SoleinTM.
Since Agronomics' first investment in Solar Foods, significant technical, regulatory, and operational progress has been made. This includes a substantial increase in the productivity of SolarFoods' organism by over 10x, achieving regulatory approval of Solein TM in Singapore and submission of a dossier to the European Food Safety Authority for approval in the European Union. In December 2022, Solar Foods received €34 million in grant funding to support the construction of its first commercial scale facility, Factory 01, which management understands is currently scheduled to be operational in the first half of 2024.
Agronomics has invested, in aggregate, €6 million in Solar Foods, being a €3 million investment in Solar Foods Series A and €3 million in the form of a pre-Series B Convertible Promissory Note ("CPN"). Following the close of this Series B round, the CPN has converted into Series B shares. Agronomics now holds an equity stake in Solar Foods of 6.4% on a fully diluted basis. Subject to audit, Agronomics will now carry this position forward at a book value of €13.3 million, representing an IRR of 35% and a MOIC of 2.2x.
A link to the Solar Foods announcement is as follows: https://solarfoods.com/solar-foods-share-issue-oversubscribed/
Solar Foods produces protein using carbon dioxide and electricity. Solein TM production, irrespective of weather and climate conditions, liberates global protein production from the constraints of traditional agriculture. Solar Foods, founded in 2017 in Espoo, Finland 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.com