Seed Innovations puts £0.17m into palm oil alternative developer

Medical cannabis, health and wellness investor Seed Innovations has invested £0.17m in Clean Food Group, a UK-based cellular agriculture company focused on the commercialisation of palm oil by fermentation, it announced on Monday.

The AIM-traded firm said the investment was made in two parts, the first being £46,000 for 4.6 million shares in a seed round in March, and the second a further £125,000 for 1.25 million shares that was invested in a ‘friends and family’ funding round.

That round raised a further £1.65m and was led by Agronomics - the AIM-traded alternative proteins company with a focus on cellular agriculture and cultivated meat.

Following the latest round of funding, Seed said it would have a holding of 5.85 million shares, representing 5.38 % of Clean Food Group’s total issued share capital, with an implied valuation of £0.59m based on the latest issue price.

“This investment has come at a time where sustainability and minimising environmental damage is at the forefront of investors' minds,” said Seed’s finance director and chief operating officer.

“Clean Food Group seeks to utilise its disruptive technology to produce a bio-equivalent palm oil alternative using microbial fermentation.

“Palm oil plantations have been well documented to be a major cause of damage globally in terms of habitat destruction and deforestation and CFG is aiming to commercialise the intellectual property it owns to bring an alternative to market.”

De Jersey said that, with this £1.65m funding in place, CFG was “well-capitalised” to complete the next stage of corporate development to bring its palm oil alternative - an ingredient that had the potential to solve “substantial” environmental, food security, health and working environment challenges within the incumbent palm oil supply chain and had already received “significant” market interest - to market.

“This is an exciting time for CFG as they start the commercialisation of their bio-equivalent palm oil alternative, and we look forward to supporting CFG's growth from this early stage.”

At 1217 BST, shares in Seed Innovations were up 0.26% at 4.31p.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.