Phytolon, a portfolio company of The Trendlines Group Ltd. announced that it secured $4.1 million in funding for its fermentation-based technology for the production of plant-based food colors. Participating in the funding were Millennium Food-Tech (an new R&D partnership dedicated to invest in food-tech companies who have now made their second investment), EIT Food, (Europe's leading food innovation initiative), Consensus Business Group (CBG), (of British businessman, Vincent Tchenguiz), The Trendlines Group (a leading Israel and Singapore-based investment group focused on high-growth medical and agrifood technologies), Yossi Ackerman (former President and CEO of Elbit Systems), and the Israel Innovation Authority. Phytolon uses current scientific advancements to bring biotechnology-based, natural, high-quality food colors to the market in a cost-effective manner for the benefit of better human health and environmental sustainability.
The need for new natural food colors is increasing due to growing consumer awareness and demands for healthier food colors to replace the synthetics that may have adverse effects on our health. The lack of reliable natural alternatives with respect to quality and cost-efficiency has made the use of natural food colors a huge challenge for the food industry. The food color market reached $2.85B in 2019, with a CAGR of 5.8%, where natural colors comprise 69% of the market.
Phytolon, founded in 2018 based on licensed technology through the Weizmann Institute of Science, leverages a proprietary, fermentation-based technology to produce plant-based food colors. Since its establishment, the company has been awarded many accolades: a finalist at MassChallenge Israel 2020, AgriVest 2019, Slingshot 2019 and a runner-up in the Calcalist-Tnuva Foodtech 2019 competition. The company is recently conducting proof of concept experiments of their product's performance at production lines of leading players at the food industry.