REG - Agronomics Limited - Onego Bio Raises EUR37 Million

AgronomicsAnnouncement

02/04/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 8969I  Agronomics Limited  02 April 2024

2 April 2024

Agronomics Limited

("Agronomics" or the "Company")

Onego Bio Raises €37 Million in Additional Funding

 

 

Agronomics (LSE: ANIC), a leading listed company focused on the field of
cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce that portfolio company Onego Bio
Ltd ("Onego Bio"), focused on commercialising egg proteins via precision
fermentation, has successfully raised €27 million in its Series A financing,
led by NordicNinja VC (https://nordicninja.com/) , a Japanese-Nordic VC
backing companies in climate and deep tech. In addition, Onego Bio secured a
further €9.5 million in non-dilutive funding from Business Finland
(https://www.businessfinland.fi/en/for-finnish-customers/services/startup-companies/startup-companies)
, a government organisation offering grant funding for innovative Finnish
companies that address significant global needs and challenges. Agronomics
participated in the round with a €1.55 million investment (the
"Subscription") alongside existing investors Maki VC (https://maki.vc/) and
Holdix (https://holdix.fi/) and new investors EIT Food
(https://www.eitfood.eu/) and Tesi (https://tesi.fi/en/) , the Finnish
sovereign wealth fund.

 

Subject to audit, Agronomics' position in Onego Bio, including the
Subscription, will be carried at £11.1 million (€12.9 million), including
an unrealised gain of £3.8 million. This represents a gross IRR of 27.57% and
a MOIC of 1.53x. Agronomics now holds an equity stake of 16.36% in Onego Bio
on a fully diluted basis, accounting for approximately 6.4% of Agronomics'
last stated Net Asset Value
(https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/agronomics/news/rns/story/xop7j9r) at
31 December 2023, including post-balance sheet date adjustments.

 

Agronomics' first investment in Onego Bio was In February 2022
(https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/agronomics/news/rns/story/wkn70dw) ,
when it led the Seed round with a €6.9 million investment. Concurrent with
the close of the Seed round, Onego Bio secured an exclusive license from VTT
Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. ("VTT") to commercialise its
proprietary strains of the highly productive protein expression system
Trichoderma reesei ("Trichoderma") to produce egg proteins. Prior to securing
the licence, more than a decade of research had been conducted at VTT under
the guidance of Chris Landowski, now CTO of Onego Bio.  Chris recognised the
advantages of Trichoderma over other protein expression systems, given its
extensive use and high productivity in other fields such as enzyme production.

 

A LCA (Life-Cycle Analysis)
(https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00418-2) conducted by VTT and
published in Nature Foods in 2021, showed that the production of ovalbumin via
precision fermentation using Trichoderma as a host organism instead of
chickens could reduce environmental impacts across a range of different impact
categories, such as global warming potential, land use, marine eutrophication,
terrestrial acidification and stratospheric ozone depletion. Additionally,
current supply chains, which at the industrial scale lead to poor animal
welfare conditions, are often interrupted by outbreaks of avian flu causing
shortages and price volatility. By decoupling egg protein production from
intensive poultry farming, precision fermentation provides a more sustainable,
ethical and secure supply of egg protein. Onego Bio is one of few companies in
the field targeting the egg market
(https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/eggs-market-108483) which was valued
at USD 136.2 bn in 2022 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 5.4%.

 

Onego Bio's Series A funding will be used to continue scaling and optimising
its production processes and productivity, finance its work with its contract
manufacturing partners and prepare for FDA filing for regulatory approval in
the United States. Onego is on track to receive self-affirmed GRAS (Generally
Recognized as Safe) status for Bioalbumen® this year, with a no-objections
letter expected from the FDA in 2025.  As a US-Finnish company, Onego plans
to first launch in North America, where the regulatory landscape allows a
faster market entry, followed by expansion in Europe, South America and Asia.

 

Jim Mellon, Executive Chairman of Agronomics commented:

 

"Eggs are an essential part of food businesses, but with the egg market
constantly fluctuating in supply and costs due to avian flu and increased
demand for cage-free, manufacturers are challenged to find a viable
replacement with a consistent, reliable, and safe supply of high-quality
protein at an accessible price. A long-term sustainable solution for chicken
eggs is needed. We have been highly impressed with Onego's capabilities and
vision from the very beginning. By repurposing a well-established technology
from the enzyme industry for food protein production, they are well-positioned
to scale to the massive volumes needed to future-proof the supply of the
world's most versatile and popular food protein."

 

New Agrarian Company Limited, an affiliate of Agronomics, invested EUR 0.5
million along with  Jim Mellon, who personally invested EUR 0.25 million on
the same terms.

 

About Bioalbumen®

Bioalbumen® is a bioidentical protein to the major protein in chicken egg
white, ovalbumin. Nutritionally complete, Onego's egg protein contains all
essential amino acids, has the highest possible protein digestibility score
PDCAAS of 1.0, and delivers a whopping >90 g protein per 100 g. With a
clean neutral flavor and superior functional properties, Bioalbumen® is an
ideal industrial ingredient for replacing eggs and enhancing the texture,
taste, and performance of a wide range of applications across the food
industry. Onego currently collaborates with over 25 well-known CPG companies,
integrating Bioalbumen® into their innovation pipeline for a wide range of
products, including baked goods, confectionery, snacks, sauces, pasta, meat
alternatives, and more.

 

About Onego Bio:

Onego Bio is a US-Finnish food-biotech company revolutionizing the food system
by harnessing the power of precision fermentation to manufacture real egg
protein entirely animal-free. Their ingredient, Bioalbumen®, sets a new
standard for sustainable protein with identical taste and nutrition, superior
functional properties and over 90% smaller environmental footprint compared to
eggs from chickens. Onego's highly productive and scalable technology caters
to the needs of the food industry searching for stable, sustainable functional
ingredients. As a game-changer in the field, the company was selected the
Winner of Fast Company's 2023 World Changing Ideas awards and is a co-founder
of two industry associations: Precision Fermentation Alliance and Food
Fermentation Europe. Learn more at www.onego.bio (http://www.onego.bio) .

 

About Agronomics

Agronomics is a leading listed company focussing on investment opportunities
within the field of cellular agriculture. The Company has established a
portfolio of over 20 companies in this rapidly advancing sector. It seeks to
invest in companies owning technologies with defensible intellectual property
that offer new ways of producing food and ingredients with a focus on products
historically derived from animals. These technologies are driving a major
disruption in agriculture, offering solutions to improve sustainability and
address human health, food security, and animal welfare. A full list of
Agronomics' portfolio companies is available at https://agronomics.im/
(https://agronomics.im/) .

 

 Agronomics           Beaumont              Canaccord Genuity Limited  Cavendish Capital Markets Limited  Peterhouse Capital    SEC Newgate

 Limited              Cornish Limited                                                                     Limited
 The Company          Nomad                 Joint Broker               Joint Broker                       Joint Broker          Public Relations
 Jim Mellon           Roland Cornish        Andrew Potts               Giles Balleny                      Lucy Williams         Bob Huxford

 Anthony Hughes
 Denham Eke           James Biddle          Harry Pardoe               Michael Johnson                    Charles Goodfellow

                                            Alex Aylen                 Charlie Combe
 +44 (0) 1624 639396  +44 (0) 207 628 3396  +44 (0) 207 523 8000       +44 (0) 207 397 8900               +44 (0) 207 469 0936  agronomics@secnewgate.co.uk

 info@agronomics.im

 

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