Asterix Foods has emerged from stealth with the closing of a $4.2m seed round led by CPT Capital with participation from ReGen Ventures, SOSV, Grok Ventures and the Israeli Innovation Authority.
Demand for high-value bioactive proteins is rising, keeping them at the centre of food and biotech innovation.
Today, most are made through precision fermentation, a process where microbes are genetically programmed to produce these valuable proteins in bioreactors.
Whilst effective, scaling this process is expensive.
Building a single precision fermentation facility can require between $125 to $500m in capital expenditure (CAPEX), often putting large-scale production out of reach in today’s funding environment.
Instead of engineering microbes, Asterix uses plant cell suspension cultures inside Massively Parallel Modular Bioreactors (MPMB).
This design slashes facility costs by more than 95% compared to traditional precision fermentation plants, cuts development timelines from years to months and removes the need for construction of costly cleanrooms for the manufacturing environment.
It does this all while producing equal or greater amounts of protein with superior functional performance.
"Bioactivity makes these proteins so powerful for the food industry, unlocking new applications in food, nutrition and health," said Dan Even, CEO of Asterix Foods.
"Our system shows how future production facilities can be deployed quickly, flexibly and at dramatically lower cost."
As plant cells evolved from multicellular organisms, they possess an advanced cellular machinery essential for complex protein production, such as glycoproteins, that microbes cannot efficiently produce.
Unlike conventional microbial fermentation, which relies on fast-growing organisms prone to contamination (necessitating SIP/CIP systems, GMP cleanrooms and complex stainless-steel infrastructure), plant cells are naturally more resistant.
This allows safe production in simpler production bioreactors, housed in standard food manufacturing facilities.
Today, Asterix operates a pilot facility in an office block in the heart of Tel Aviv, demonstrating how flexible production can be.
This facility operates independently of natural resource constraints, enabling deployment on non-arable land and strategic co-location with manufacturing hubs to reduce transportation costs and emissions.
Asterix's modular system enables continuous, year-round production with virtually no interruptions, unlike traditional precision fermentation plants that only run a few bioreactors and face heavy downtime for cleaning and maintenance.
Operating at room temperature, the bioreactors cut energy use for heating and cooling and dramatically reduce water consumption by removing the need for cleaning or steam cycles.
“Asterix’s capex-light and modular system gives them and their customers flexibility to locate production exactly where it’s needed,” said Harry Kalms, Investor at CPT Capital.
“CPT has long supported removing animals from the supply chain, but what’s exciting now is the clear pull from the market."
"Companies are recognising the limits of today’s protein supply chain and looking for ways to produce high-value, bioactive proteins at a fraction of the cost and at unprecedented volumes.”
"Plant cell suspension cultures are already used by at least 16 global corporations for producing everything from vaccines to food pigments," said Po Bronson, General Partner at SOSV and Managing Director at the IndieBio startup development program.
"Asterix is now pushing this platform further, opening new opportunities to produce alternative proteins with unprecedented cost-efficiency and precision."
"What makes Asterix’s even more compelling is its modularity."
"Partners can start profitably at low volumes with minimal upfront investment and scale up incrementally. Even small facilities can produce multiple proteins in parallel."
Having validated its platform across a range of proteins, Asterix is now engaging directly with corporates to target proteins critical for future supply chains, proteins currently unavailable today in sufficient quantities.
This new funding will enable Asterix to expand its Tel Aviv pilot facility and begin delivering samples to selected customers.