Agronomics Limited Announces Solar Foods Completes EURO 8m Series B Financing

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 ("Springvest"). In addition, existing investors participated in the Series B financing alongside Springvest via a private placement anticipated to close within 2 weeks. The private placement includes existing investors Happiness Capital, Lifeline Ventures, VTT Ventures and Fazer. The Series B funds will be used for continued building and ramping up production of their single cell protein Solein^TM.

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 round in September 2020 and €3 million in the form of a pre-Series B Convertible Promissory Note ("CPN") in October 2021. Subject to audit, the Company's 2020 Series A investment will be carried at a book value of £8.3 million including an uplift of £5.7 million. The Company expects to convert the CPN following the closing of the private placement, at which point a further announcement will be made.

A link to the Solar Foods announcement is as follows: https://solarfoods.com/solar-foods-share-issue-oversubscribed/

About Solar Foods

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.