Agronomics Regulatory News (ANIC)

08 August 2023

Agronomics Limited

("Agronomics" or the "Company")

Portfolio Company Update: Clean Food Group announces strategic collaboration with LATAM food giant, Alianza Team

Agronomics (LSE: ANIC), the leading listed company focused on the field of cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce that portfolio company Clean Food Group, focused on commercialising fermentation-derived palm oil, will receive new investment and entered a new strategic collaboration with leading South American food company, Alianza Team.

● Clean Food Group and Alianza Team will develop products that meet the industry's need for sustainable, functional and cost-competitive oils and fats to replace commonly used and agriculturally intensive food ingredients.

● As part of the strategic collaboration, Alianza Team is investing in Clean Food Group's current "Pre Series A" funding round.

The Company has invested a total of £900,500 into Clean Food Group since inception, which is currently carried at £6.27 million, including an unrealised gain on cost of £5.37 million. This position accounts for approximately 4% of the last published Net Asset Value of Agronomics (30/06/23). Agronomics has an equity ownership of 30.59% on a fully diluted basis in Clean Food Group.

The full announcement is set out below without any material changes:

UK food-tech business Clean Food Group announces strategic collaboration with LATAM food technology specialist, Alianza Team

Collaboration includes investment in Clean Food Group's current funding round and will accelerate market availability of healthy and sustainable oils and fats products for global food manufacturers 

London, 08 August 2023, Pioneering UK-based bio-tech business Clean Food Group is pleased to announce a new investment and strategic collaboration with Alianza Team, the Latin American food production and lipid-based technology expert, a leading company in the world of lipids, nutrition and frozen bakery.

The long-term collaboration agreement will accelerate Clean Food Group's pathway to commercialisation and will combine Clean Food Group's expertise in the production of microbial oils with Alianza Team's 75 years' experience and expertise in developing functional, value-add oils and fats products for the world's leading food manufacturers. Together, Clean Food Group and Alianza Team will develop, and bring to market, products which meet the industry's need for sustainable, functional and cost competitive oils and fats to replace commonly used and agriculturally intensive food ingredients.

As part of the strategic collaboration, Alianza Team is investing in Clean Food Group's current "Pre series A" funding round. The funding round, which is being supported by both new and existing investors, is expected to close in August 2023. Capital raised from this funding will enable Clean Food Group to accelerate the scale up of its technology platform whilst advancing critical regulatory and commercial pathways. Clean Food Group expects to complete a Series A funding in 2024, by which time the business will have validated technology at a commercial scale and have clear line of sight to near term revenue generation. The business will raise funds at Series A to support the build out of a commercial scale manufacturing facility.

Clean Food Group's technology platform is the result of eight years of pioneering research led by Professor Chris Chuck, Technical Lead at Clean Food Group. The proprietary technology platform uses proven, scalable yeast strains and fermentation technology and uses food waste as its food source, to deliver sustainable alternatives to traditional oil and fat ingredients.

Alex Neves, Co-founder and CEO of Clean Food Group says: "We are delighted to be sharing the news of this investment and collaboration with Alianza Team today. The investment is further validation of Clean Food Group's technology platform and is a key component in enabling the company to proceed to a successful close of our current funding round. The strategic collaboration with Alianza Team will drive forward our commercialisation strategy and support our objective to bring sustainable oils and fats on to the market, at commercial scale, within the next three years."

Luis Botero, President and CEO at Alianza Team says: "Alianza Team is committed to creating a new future of healthy and sustainable food choices for our customers. We are excited to be investing in and collaborating with Clean Food Group, an organisation where we believe our shared core values of innovation and sustainability will deliver healthier, more nutritional foods to improve our food systems for future generations."

Jim Mellon, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Agronomics; Co-Chairman of Clean Food Group, says: "This strategic collaboration marks an important milestone for Clean Food Group and Agronomics in our mission to revolutionise the food industry. By combining Clean Food Group's cutting-edge technology with Alianza Team's extensive expertise in developing recognised, branded food products, this collaboration brings us a significant step closer to commercialisation while unlocking the potential for a future where our food choices will be more sustainable."

About Clean Food Group:

Clean Food Group is a UK-based food-tech business delivering sustainable oils and fats solutions to the world's food and cosmetics manufacturers, with the mission to deliver scalable, healthier, competitively priced ingredients that have a positive impact on the economic, environmental, and social health of the planet.

Clean Food Group is founded by a team with key experience in growing bio-tech, food industry and retail businesses supported by established venture capital and family office investors with a track record supporting fast-growth start-up companies in highly regulated industries. Clean Food Group's proprietary technology platform has been developed as a result of 8 years of pioneering research by Professor Chris Chuck, technical lead at Clean Food Group, and the University of Bath.

About Alianza Team

Alianza Team is a multinational leader in the lipid, nutrition and frozen bakery sector, with over 75 years of experience. With operations in Colombia, Mexico, Chile and the United States, it stands out for its extensive expertise in the development of innovative products, services and technological solutions. Committed to generating value and making a difference in the market, they have four key business units: Team Solutions, Team Foods, Team Caribe and BredenMaster. Their commitment with social, economic and environmental sustainable development shows how they are fulfilling their higher purpose of Nurturing a Better Tomorrow.

About Agronomics

Agronomics is a leading listed company with a focus on cellular agriculture and cultivated meat. The Company has established a portfolio of over 20 companies in this rapidly advancing sector. It seeks to invest in companies owning technologies with defensible intellectual property that offer new ways of producing food and materials with a focus on products historically derived from animals. These technologies are driving a major disruption in agriculture, offering solutions to improve sustainability, as well as addressing human health, animal welfare and environmental damage. This disruption will decouple supply chains from the environment and animals and improve food security for the world's expanding population. A full list of Agronomics' portfolio companies is available at https://agronomics.im/.

About Cellular Agriculture

Cellular Agriculture is the production of agriculture products directly from cells, as opposed to raising an animal for slaughter or growing crops. This encompasses cell culture to produce cultivated meat and materials, and fermentation processes that harness a combination of molecular biology, synthetic biology, tissue engineering and biotechnology to massively simplify production methods in a sustainable manner.

Over the coming decades, the source of the world's food supply traditionally derived from conventional agriculture is going to change dramatically. We have already witnessed the first wave of this shift with the consumer adoption of plant-based alternative proteins but today, we are on the cusp of an even bigger wave of change. This is being facilitated by advances in cellular agriculture. This change is necessary, given scientists' claims that if we maintain existing animal protein consumption patterns, then we will not meet the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to 1.5℃.

AT Kearney, a global consultancy firm, projects that cultivated meat's market share will reach 35% by 2040. This combined with the Good Food Institute's estimate that a US $1.8 trillion investment will be required in order to produce just 10% of the world's protein using this technology, means that we are on the cusp of a multi-decade flow of capital to build out manufacturing facilities. Funding in the field of cellular agriculture is accelerating, however, still, less than US$ 5 billion has been invested worldwide since the industry's inception in 2016.

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