Dutch fermentation startup The Protein Brewery has raised €30M ($35M) in Series B funding to bring its fungi-derived Fermotein ingredient to market. It’s also closing in on European approval.
Breda-based food tech player The Protein Brewery is looking to supercharge the active nutrition, better-for-you snacking, and GLP-1 spaces with new funding for its low-cost fungi protein.
The startup has secured €30M ($35M) in a Series B round, welcoming new backers in Invest-NL (the national government’s promotion body) and the Brabant Development Agency (BOM).
They joined existing investors Novo Holdings (the parent company of Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk), Unovis Asset Management, and Madeli in the new financing round, taking the firm’s total raised to €52M ($61M).
The Protein Brewery will use the capital to bring its high-protein, high-fibre Fermotein ingredient to market. It’s already cleared to sell the fermentation-derived innovation in the US and Singapore, with regulatory approval imminent in other geographies too.
“We submitted our dossier quite some time ago in both the EU and the UK. “We are in the final stage of approval with both jurisdictions,” CEO Thijs Bosch tells Green Queen. “We are currently investigating to file in Canada, China and Mexico as well.”
How The Protein Brewery makes Fermotein
Founded in 2020 as part of a demerger of industrial biotech company BioscienZ BV, The Protein Brewery is aiming to commercialise low-cost, low-carbon ingredients that turn low-nutritive crops into nutritional powerhouse products.
Its first solution is Fermotein, a whole-cell bioproduct derived from Rhizomucor pusillus, an extremophilic strain that can deal with low pH levels and high temperatures.
“Fermotein biomass is grown in fermenters under specific conditions, after which it is sieved and pasteurised. The product is then further de-watered and dried. The dried Fermotein is milled to achieve the desired particle size and packed in bags for shipment to our customers,” explains Bosch.
“We use mainly glucose as a feedstock, and are working on solutions to utilise sugar-rich by-products as well,” he adds.
The ingredient is rich in dietary fibre to support the immune system and healthy cholesterol levels, and is a complete protein. Its yield is 26 times more protein than meat, five times more than soy, and four times more than pea protein. On the climate front, compared to beef, it uses just 1% of the land, consumes 5% of the water and releases 3% of the emissions.
Crucially, Fermotein has a natural taste, smell and colour, enabling food companies to use it without masking agents in a wide variety of applications. These include high-protein drinks, nutrition bars, non-dairy milks and yoghurts, and protein-boosted pancakes, tortilla chips, muffins, and more.
It’s produced in The Protein Brewery’s pilot plant in Mijkenbroek, Breda, which can churn out 100kg of the mycoprotein daily. Armed with the new capital, the startup will now expand the facility’s capacity to ready itself for large-scale commercialisation.
The Protein Brewery eyes active nutrition and GLP-1 markets
Last year, the startup self-determined Fermotein as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) in the US. However, with that rule set to be scrapped next year, many alternative protein companies have been filing GRAS submissions to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in pursuit of its approval.
“Our dossier has been filed with the FDA,” confirms Bosch. “We expect a ‘no questions’ letter within six to nine months.”
In 2024, the company said it was in talks with US allergen-free ingredients company Nepra Foods and Canadian distributor CK Ingredients for potential partnerships. Now, Bosch notes it’s working with several manufacturers to bring Fermotein to the US market in the coming months.
“One of our customers is launching a vegan ready-to-mix product in the coming months, targeting the nutritional space with a healthy and sustainable protein/fibre mix. Active nutrition is a segment in which we get a lot of traction, thanks to the nutritional profile of Fermotein,” he says.
“We also have several customers that are planning to launch with Fermotein in the better-for-you bakery and snacking segment, fortifying their products in terms of protein and fibre, and making them keto-friendly.”
In addition, The Protein Brewery is targeting the lucrative GLP-1 space. One in eight Americans has tried weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, which have sent the food industry into a frenzy. But with side effects raising concerns, some startups have developed products that naturally boost the body’s GLP-1 hormone through food.
“As Fermotein is rich in protein and fibre, it can be a good companion food,” says Bosch. “We are currently investigating the potential of Fermotein to be a natural GLP-1 booster.”
Investors see climate and nutritional potential in Fermotein
Aside from scaling up and accelerating its commercial plans, the funding will help The Protein Brewery further develop its fermentation platform to unlock new nutrition and product applications.
And as it prepares for launches in the UK and the EU, once regulatory approval comes through, it’s already expanding its business in Singapore.
“We will exhibit during the Agri-Food Tech Expo Asia in Singapore early November and are working with a distribution partner in Singapore to scale faster in this market,” says Bosch. “We were approved by the Singapore Food Agency in 2024 and see significant potential in the active nutrition market.”
While funding for alternative protein companies fell off a cliff over the last couple of years, investors continued to bet on fermentation-focused firms. Financing for plant-based proteins (-64%) and cultivated meat declined by 64% and 40%, respectively, in 2024 whereas for fermentation-derived proteins, funding increased by 43% (reaching $651M).
In the first half of 2025, however, this sector has only received $148M in funding, as overall investment in alternative protein declined by 50% year-on-year. So the fact that The Protein Brewery raised $35M in such a tough landscape is a marker of investors’ confidence in its technology.
“We have brought new investors on board (Invest-NL and BOM), which share our mission of scaling climate-friendly food ingredients and making a positive contribution to the Dutch food tech ecosystem,” says Bosch.
He adds that the startup’s current shareholders reinvested because “they believe that our proprietary fermentation technology can be a very efficient and nutritious food source, once this is brought to full scale”.
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