Agronomics puts in another EUR 3m in Solar Foods funding round

Cellular agriculture investor Agronomics has participated in the €6m bridge round for investee company Solar Foods for €3m, it announced on Tuesday, in the form of a convertible loan note.

The AIM-traded firm said the fundraising was on the back of the announcement that the state-owned Finnish Climate Fund had invested €10m to aid the build-out of Solar Food's demonstration facility.

Also joining the round were existing investors CPT Capital and Happiness Capital, and new investor LOSA Group.

The company said the convertible loan note was expected to convert to give Agronomics an approximate equity ownership of 5.8%, including its prior investment announced in September last year.

Over the past year, Solar Foods had made “strong” research and development progress, and was now focussed on building its new demonstration facility that was set to be operational early in 2023.

Solar Foods' novel technology was recently recognised by NASA as part of their ‘Deep Space Food Challenge’, the board noted, which was looking for new solutions to feed astronauts.

“Recently, our team visited Solar Foods in Finland and were very impressed by the operation's scientific rigour, and the potential of Solein as a sustainable protein source to meet future protein demand,” said Agronomics non-executive director Jim Mellon.

“We look forward to the build out of the demonstration facility.”

At 1235 BST, shares in Agronomics were up 1.47% at 27.7p.