Agronomics investee Solar Foods gets EUR 34m grant

Cellular agriculture investor Agronomics announced on Friday that its Finnish portfolio company Solar Foods, focussed on commercialising its ‘Solein’ protein “made from air”, has received a €34m grant to support the build of its first fermentation facility and start preparations for a full-scale facility.

The AIM-traded firm had invested a total of €6m in Solar Foods to date, and owns around 5.8% of the company, subject to conversion of the outstanding loan note.

It said Business Finland approved a €34m grant, which Solar Foods claimed was “the single largest” public grant funding for cellular agriculture in the world to date.

In September, Solar Foods was selected to be a part of the European Commission's ‘strategic hydrogen economy core’.

Its €600m investment programme, which also included the future ‘Factory 02’, was notified as a hydrogen ‘important project of common European interest’ (IPCEI), with maximum state aid of €110m.

In alignment with the research and development phase plan of the IPCEI notification, Solar Foods would use the grant to ramp up its hydrogen fermentation facility, ‘Factory 01’, and enter the engineering phase with the following Factory 02.

“For us, this grant is not a Christmas present but the result of one and a half years of negotiation and the hard work done by the people behind the Finnish innovation system,” said Solar Foods chief executive officer and co-founder Pasi Vainikka.

“The grant demonstrates how Finland's innovation system is ready to think outside the box and wants to support the commercialisation of scientific discoveries emerging from the intersections of scientific disciplines.

“We do not really fit into any single traditional research and innovation category - we do clean-tech, food-tech, hydrogen technology and on a systemic level support the restoration of natural ecosystems.”

Solar Foods said Factory 01 had reached its full roof height at Vantaa in Finland, with process installations set to begin in the first quarter of 2023.

It said Factory 01 was aimed to be fully operational in the first quarter of 2024, with the data and operational experiences from the factory set to be applied in finalising the engineering for Factory 02.

At 1218 GMT, shares in Agronomics were up 0.87% at 11.6p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.