Solar Foods – a food tech start-up producing protein using air and electricity from raw materials – has been granted €4.3 million (US$5.1 million) of new financing from Business Finland. 

This funding supports the start-up’s €8.6 million (US$10.3 million) development project for commercializing its natural protein “made from thin air,” called Solein. 

It is a complete sustainable protein with all the essential amino acids that is light in both taste and appearance. It vanishes into daily meals while maintaining its nutritional value. It’s tipped as providing “exciting opportunities for entirely new foods of tomorrow.”

Business Finland’s – a Finnish government organization backing innovation – takes Solar Foods’ total financing to €24.8 million (US$30 million). 

It closely follows a €15 million (US$18 million) financing round for the Finnish food tech start-up in September, propelling operations for the production of Solein, hailed as an entirely new kind of nutrient-rich protein.

The company can now push ahead with its planned production facility scheduled to be operational in late 2022.

Getting Solein market-ready
Solar Foods has two important tasks on the horizon: making Solein market-ready and constructing its demonstration factory. 

“Ever since the founding of Solar Foods, we have enjoyed fruitful cooperation with Business Finland,” says Solar Foods CEO and co-founder, Dr. Pasi Vainikka.

“We are extremely happy about Business Finland’s follow-on capability during the growth of companies like us.”

Development of alternative proteins 
Solar Foods stands as the first company to produce food by using air-captured CO2 in a continuous mode, including preparing the actual final food products. 

It produces an entirely new kind of nutrient-rich protein using air and electricity as its primary raw materials. based on natural fermentation, this process revolutionizes food production, as the production of Solein is not dependent on the weather, climate, or agriculture.

Business Finland previously co-financed Solar Foods’ piloting phase and the company’s business incubator project with the European Space Agency.

“Our next target is to finalize funding for the demonstration factory investment. For the demo, we have already covered basic engineering, with also good options for a location that we are about to set in the upcoming weeks,” Vainikka continues. 

Dr. Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, Solar Foods CTO and co-founder, adds: “After carrying out basic engineering, the Solar Foods production facility is now entering the permitting process. Its function is to demonstrate the future of food production.”

Facilitating future foods
So far, Solar Foods has already developed over 20 different kinds of food products that utilize Solein.

“We’ve worked with meat replacing products and adding textures to meat. We’ve also worked with dairy products, including drinkable products or thicker-than-beverage products such as yogurt or cheese,” Vainikka previously told FoodIngredientsFirst. 

With basic engineering done and permitting well underway, both Solar Foods’ demonstration facility and its core team are shaping up, says the company. 

“Solar Foods’ vision is to change the way food is produced, and the demonstrator’s product is aimed to be permitted as a global novel food ingredient. Food of the future is not a utopia – it is happening now”, Vainikka concludes.

Solar Foods stresses that producing Solein can occur in the toughest of environmental conditions, including the desert, the Arctic, or possibly even in space. 

Its production process does not involve irrigation, pesticides, fertilizers applied on open land or animals.