Dutch food tech startup Revyve has secured €24M ($28M) in Series B financing to scale up its functional yeast proteins to replace eggs and ultra-processed additives.
Food producers need an urgent solution to soaring egg prices and clean-label alternatives to ultra-processed ingredients – and investors are paying attention.
In the Netherlands, one startup is upcycling beer waste and fermenting it to produce a protein that can replace eggs and additives like methycellulose in a range of applications, addressing health, sustainability, and price concerns all at once.
A spin-out of Wageningen University & Research, Revyve has raised €24M ($28M) in a Series B round led by ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund and Invest-NL (the national promotion agency).
The investment also saw participation from the regional government via the Brabant Development Agency, as well as Danstar Ferment (the Swiss affiliate of Lallemand Bio-Ingredients), Grey Silo Ventures, and existing investors Oost NL and Royal Cosun. It took Revyve’s total raised past €40M ($47M).
“The funding will be used toward three priorities: scaling up our first-of-a-kind production facility, expanding our team, and accelerating collaborations with food manufacturers to bring innovative products to market. This ensures we can meet demand on a commercial scale while realising positive margins,” Revyve CEO Cedric Verstraeten tells Green Queen.
He adds: “This round secures us runway until we can operate at break-even, based on full capacity utilisation at our Dinteloord facility.”
Revyve plans to scale up capacity for global customers
Revyve produces highly functional powdered yeast proteins that replicate eggs and industrial additives in a range of applications, from meat and dairy alternatives to sauces, appetisers and baked goods.
It does so by utilising spent brewer’s yeast, a byproduct of the beer industry. Given the amount of beer produced globally, this gives Revyve a virtually endless supply of yeast. Plus, valorising a waste product lowers both the climate footprint and eventual cost of the ingredient, both key metrics for manufacturers.
“We use Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is commercially available from breweries and large yeast producers,” says Verstraeten. “This species has been used for centuries in baking, brewing and other food applications.
“Our process is not novel [in] the EU, and in the US, our GRAS [Generally Recognized as Safe] status is confirmed by an expert consensus statement,” he adds, another tick in the box for its customers.
Revyve washes the yeast to remove all beer and brewing-related off-noted, then micro-mills it to separate the protein and fibre to optimise firming, gelling and foaming capabilities.
“Using our proprietary process, we mechanically process yeast to produce high-quality protein and fibre ingredients. This approach preserves the unique native functionality of yeast proteins. It’s a clean, sustainable process that can be scaled efficiently through existing infrastructure,” explains Verstraeten.
Revyve’s production facility in Dinterloord is already running at capacity for several customers across Europe, the UK, the US, Canada, Mexico and Australia. And with the new investment, it will now expand the output to over 1,600 tonnes per year.
“We are in-market with several products across different food categories like dressings and sauces, bakery and snacks, and meat alternatives,” says Verstraeten, though he declined to name specific companies in order to “preserve their competitive advantage” in using Revyve’s ingredients.
How Revyve attracted investors in a venture capital drought
Verstraeten notes that Revyve’s R&D and applications teams continue to find ways to broaden its portfolio of functional ingredients, with some “exciting longer-term projects” in the work too.
“Our dual approach of having our own dedicated sales infrastructure with selected distributors ensures that we are able to reach new customers in different geographies with the right level of service and support,” he adds.
It’s one of several other companies using brewer’s yeast to make egg replacers, including ProteinDistillery and Yeastup. But Verstraeten points to several key elements that differentiate Revyve from others.
“Subtle but key differences in our proprietary process ensure that we have the most functional yeast proteins on the market, which is crucial to successfully replace egg ingredients or additives,” he says. “Most of our commercial production is from primary grown yeast; as a result, our ingredients are taste neutral and gluten-free, key requirements for the industry.”
He continues: “Our first-of-a-kind production facility has been in production for [over] 12 months, and we have a track record of commercial production with all relevant certifications and customer service.”
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 only received $148M in funding, as overall investment in alternative protein declined by 50% year-on-year. So how did Revyve’s get investors to pump $28M into its functional proteins?
“Our pitch was simple: the world needs scalable, functional, and sustainable alternatives to animal proteins, and Revyve has the technology, partners, and market traction to deliver them,” says Verstraeten. “Investors saw not just the impact potential, but also the commercial case for a cost-competitive, scalable ingredient.”
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