RCS - Agronomics Limited - Portfolio Company Onego Bio Awarded Grant Funding

AgronomicsAnnouncement

07/09/2022 07:00

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RNS Number : 4980Y  Agronomics Limited  07 September 2022

7(th) September 2022

 

Agronomics Limited (https://agronomics.im/)

("Agronomics" or the "Company")

 

Portfolio Company Onego Bio Awarded EUR 4.5M in Grant Funding

 

Agronomics (AIM:ANIC), the leading listed company focused on the field of
cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce that portfolio company Onego Bio
Ltd ("Onego Bio"), a company developing sustainable and animal free egg
proteins via precision fermentation, has been awarded EUR 4.5 million in grant
funding from Business Finland (https://www.businessfinland.fi/en) . This
additional non-dilutive funding will allow Onego Bio to accelerate research
and development of their egg protein - Bioalbumen™, as they move towards
commercialisation.

 

Agronomics holds 340,237 shares in Onego Bio, representing an equity ownership
of 19.94% on a fully diluted basis following its investment in February 2022
(https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/agronomics/news/rns/story/wkn70dw) .
Agronomics currently carries this position in its accounts at cost of EUR
6.9M. Based on the last reported Net Asset Value ("NAV") as at 30 June 2022,
the Onego Bio position represents 4.1% of NAV.

 

The full Onego Bio announcement is set out below without any material changes:

 

Onego Bio secures EUR 4.5M additional funding to accelerate research and
development

 

Onego Bio is a Finnish biotechnology company producing animal-free egg white
with precision fermentation. With the new funding granted by Business Finland,
the company can accelerate the research and development of Bioalbumen™
production even further. The company's solution rises to the major global
challenges of food production and sustainable development.

 

HELSINKI, Finland (September 7th, 2022) Onego Bio is a biotech spin-off from
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The company uses a commercially
proven Trichoderma technology to solve environmental problems associated with
eggs, one of the world's most used animal proteins. This safe, sustainable and
cost-effective precision fermentation method produces ovalbumin, the most
abundant egg white protein, and the team believes this chosen technology is
superior because of its efficiency and productivity.

 

Onego raised EUR 10 million seed funding from Agronomics and Maki VC in
February, and now Business Finland, a public organization under the Finnish
Ministry of Employment and the Economy, has awarded a grant of additional EUR
4.5 million for Onego Bio's research and development work. Business Finland's
funding makes it possible to increase the project's resourcing and speed up
its implementation, which improves its business expectations and positive
social and environmental effects.

 

According to Business Finland, the company's solution rises to the major
global challenges and development trends in food production. It has
significant international business potential, and promotes sustainable food
production, food security and the fight against climate change. The funded
project also promotes the commercialization of public research findings into a
global competitive advantage and has a significant positive impact on the
development of the company's business.

 

"Since our founding in February 2022, our team has been working hard to launch
remarkable development projects, recruiting talented new team members, as well
as generating business plans and commercial scenarios. With the help of this
amazing additional funding, we can focus on even more complex and ambitious
R&D areas and keep our risk appetite and performance requirements high",
says Maija Itkonen, CEO and co-founder of Onego Bio.

 

Cellular agriculture uses microorganisms and bioreactors instead of
traditional animal farming and can provide the same beloved food ingredients
that are used every day but decoupled from the animal agriculture systems.
Because of its unique functional properties, egg white is difficult to replace
with alternative ingredients and it's often the last frontier before entirely
animal-free products can be manufactured. Onego Bio provides the nutritional
and functional upsides of egg white, without the environmental, ethical and
safety-related concerns. The company aims to launch its first product
Bioalbumen™ as a food ingredient for food industry and later enter the
consumer market with its own branded products for baking and cooking.

 

 

For further information, please contact:

Laura Toppinen

Head of Brand & Communications

Onego Bio Ltd

laura@onego.bio

 

 

About Onego Bio

Onego Bio Ltd is a game-changing biotech company producing animal-free egg
proteins with precision fermentation. When implemented in full scale, this new
production method provides significant benefits to the environment, food
security, as well as animal welfare. The team believes the chosen technology
is superior because of its efficiency and productivity. Based on the
anticipatory LCA published in Nature Food
(https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00418-2) , the technology shows
potential to significantly reduce most agriculture-associated impacts, such as
global warming and land use.

 

Egg is one of the world's most used animal proteins and difficult to replace
with alternative ingredients. Onego Bio will make it possible to manufacture
the same delicious foods entirely animal-free. Company aims to launch its
first product Bioalbumen™ as a food ingredient for food industry and later
enter the consumer market with its own branded products for baking and
cooking. Bioalbumen provides the nutritional and functional upsides of egg
white, without the environmental, ethical and safety-related concerns.

 

Founded in 2022 by Maija Itkonen (CEO), Christopher Landowski (CTO) and Jussi
Joensuu (COO), Onego Bio is a VTT spin-off that salutes the remarkable work
done by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland for the next level cell ag
products and applications. Onego Bio's mission is to rethink eggs and give
people access to sustainable, delicious and healthy animal-free food. Learn
more at www.onego.bio (http://www.onego.bio) and follow our journey in
LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/onego-bio/) , Twitter
(https://twitter.com/onego_bio) and Instagram
(https://www.instagram.com/onego_bio/) .

 

Founded in 2022 by Maija Itkonen (CEO), Christopher Landowski (CTO) and Jussi
Joensuu (COO), Onego Bio is a VTT spin-off that salutes the remarkable work
done by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland for the next level cell ag
products and applications. Onego Bio's mission is to rethink eggs and give
people access to sustainable, delicious and healthy animal-free egg protein.

 

Learn more at www.onego.bio (http://www.onego.bio) and follow our journey in
LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/onego-bio/) , Twitter
(https://twitter.com/onego_bio) and Instagram
(https://www.instagram.com/onego_bio/) .

 

About Agronomics
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttps://agronomics.im/%26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;source%3Deditors%26amp;ust%3D1657614230868787%26amp;usg%3DAOvVaw3mASLRb5PoGSVFyynPDE3Q&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1657614230897307&usg=AOvVaw2gC6cdzFMtEF7FxFWoYEHt)

Agronomics is a leading listed alternative proteins company with a focus on
cellular agriculture and cultivated meat. The Company has established a
portfolio of 24 companies at the Pre-Seed to Series C stage in this rapidly
advancing sector. It seeks to secure minority stakes in companies owning
technologies with defensible intellectual property that offer new ways of
producing food and materials with a focus on products historically derived
from animals. These technologies are driving a major disruption in
agriculture, offering solutions to improve sustainability, as well as
addressing human health, animal welfare and environmental damage. This
disruption will decouple supply chains from the environment and animals, as
well as being fundamental to feeding the world's expanding population. A full
list of Agronomics' portfolio companies is available
at https://agronomics.im/
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttps://clicktime.symantec.com/368cVqxx3R6vTFuHpf6MSE66Gi?u%253Dhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fagronomics.im%25252F%26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;source%3Deditors%26amp;ust%3D1657614230869430%26amp;usg%3DAOvVaw0JVrLmcU8-NBpfa7VILSgF&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1657614230897432&usg=AOvVaw25knMFCSK3TfHJGV6BgRFB)
.

 

About Cellular Agriculture

Cellular Agriculture is the production of agriculture products directly from
cells, as opposed to raising an animal for slaughter, or growing crops. This
encompasses cell culture to produce cultivated meat and materials, and
fermentation processes that harness a combination of molecular biology,
synthetic biology, tissue engineering and biotechnology to massively simplify
production methods in a sustainable manner.

 

Over the coming decades, the source of the world's food supply traditionally
derived from conventional agriculture is going to change dramatically. We have
already witnessed the first wave of this shift with the consumer adoption of
plant-based alternative proteins but today, we are on the cusp of an even
bigger wave of change. This is being facilitated by advances in cellular
agriculture. This change is necessary, given scientists claims that if we
maintain existing animal protein consumption patterns, then we will not meet
the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to 1.5℃

 

AT Kearney, a global consultancy firm, projects that cultivated meat's market
share will reach 35% by 2040. This combined with the Good Food
Institute's estimate that a US $1.8 trillion investment will be required in
order to produce just 10% of the world's protein using this technology, means
that we are on the cusp of a multi-decade flow of capital to build out
manufacturing facilities. Funding in the field of cellular agriculture is
accelerating, however still less than US$ 4 billion has been invested
worldwide since the industry's inception in 2016.

 

 

For further information please contact:

 

 Agronomics Limited                               Beaumont Cornish Limited  Canaccord Genuity Limited        Cenkos  Securities Plc   Peterhouse Capital Limited  TB Cardew
 The Company                                      Nomad                     Joint Broker                     Joint Broker             Joint Broker                Public Relations
 Richard Reed                                     Roland Cornish            Andrew Potts                     Giles Balleny            Lucy Williams               Ed Orlebar

 Denham Eke                                       James Biddle              Harry Rees                       Max Gould                Charles Goodfellow          Alistair Walker

                                                                            Alex Aylen (Head of Equities)    Michael Johnson
 +44 (0) 1624 639396                              +44 (0) 207 628 3396      +44 (0) 207 523 8000             +44 (0) 207 397 8900     +44 (0) 207 469 0936        +44 (0) 20 7930 0777

 info@agronomics.im (mailto:info@agronomics.im)                                                                                                                   +44 (0) 7738 724 630

                                                                                                                                                                  agronomics@tbcardew.com (mailto:agronomics@tbcardew.com)

 

 

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