REG - Seed Innovations Ltd - Investee Company Update: Clean Food Group

Seed InnovationsAnnouncement

14/08/2023 07:30

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20230814:nRSN2021Ja&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 2021J  Seed Innovations Limited  14 August 2023

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of
the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014, as it forms part of UK Domestic
Law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the
publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to
be in the public domain.

 

 

14 August 2023

 

SEED Innovations Limited

 

("SEED" or the "Company")

 

Investee Company Update: Clean Food Group

Successful fundraise of approximately £2.3 million

 

SEED Innovations Ltd, the AIM-quoted company investment company providing
shareholders with exposure to early-stage health, wellness and medical
cannabis companies, to which, in normal circumstances, they have limited
access to, is pleased to announce that it has further invested a total of
£216,000 in Clean Food Group Ltd ("Clean Food Group" or "CFG"), a UK-based
food-tech business delivering sustainable oils and fats solutions to the
world's food and cosmetics manufacturers, ("the Investment").  The Investment
is part of a fundraise of approximately £2.3 million announced by CFG with
proceeds to be used to accelerate the commercialisation of its sustainable
oils and fats technology ("the Fundraise").

 

This latest funding round completed at £0.165 (16.5 pence) per share and
gives CFG a suggested post-money valuation of approximately £22.3 million.

 

Following this latest round of funding which is the third round in which SEED
has participated, SEED will have a holding of 7,161,336 shares representing
5.8% of CFG's total issued share capital, with an implied valuation of
approximately £1.2 million based on the latest issue price.

 

 

Highlights

 

-      Clean Food Group is a UK-based food-tech business delivering
sustainable oils and fats solutions to the world's food and cosmetics
manufacturers, with the mission to deliver scalable, healthier, competitively
priced ingredients that have a positive impact on the economic, environmental,
and social health of the planet

 

-      Fundraise is being supported by industrial food specialists
Doehler Group and Alianza Team, as the global food industry looks to invest in
healthier and more sustainable food choices for future generations, along with
AIM listed Agronomics Limited (AIM:ANIC) who are continuing to support CFG

 

-      Proceeds of the Fundraise will enable Clean Food Group to
accelerate the scale up of its technology platform whilst also advancing
critical regulatory and commercial pathways

 

-      CFG expects to complete a Series A funding in 2024, by which time
the business will have validated technology at a commercial scale and have
clear line of sight to near term revenue generation.

 

 

 

Commenting on the Fundraise, Lance de Jersey, Finance Director of SEED said:

 

"We are delighted that despite challenging market conditions, CFG has
successfully raised approximately £2.3 million to further expand its business
and deliver on its stated growth strategy. We saw the potential of CFG in
2022, when we invested £171,000 into the business and we are very pleased to
be able to continue to support CFG and its team in the recent fund-raising
round.  I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the CFG team
for all that they have achieved to date and look forward to following its
development in the future."

The following announcement is set out without material changes or adjustments
and the announcement in full can be accessed from the following link:
https://cleanfood.group/ (https://cleanfood.group/)

 

Start of CFG's announcement:

UK food-tech business Clean Food Group announces additional £2.3m funding to
scale operations in advance of Series A

£10m of funding to date to develop Company's sustainable oils and fats
technology

Industrial giants Doehler Group and Alianza Team invest and confirm strategic
collaborations

 

London, 14 August 2023: Pioneering UK-based bio-tech business Clean Food Group
has announced a further £2.3 million in funding to accelerate the
commercialisation of its sustainable oils and fats technology. International
investment has come from industrial food specialists Doehler Group and Alianza
Team as the global food industry looks to invest in healthier and more
sustainable food choices for future generations. Agronomics, the leading
listed investment company focussed on Cellular Agriculture, and SEED
Innovations Ltd, the AIM-listed fund focused on investments in global health
opportunities, have also shown their continued support and participated in the
latest funding round.

Capital raised from this funding will enable Clean Food Group to accelerate
the scale-up of its technology platform while advancing critical regulatory
and commercial pathways. Clean Food Group expects to complete a Series A
funding in 2024, by which time the business will have validated the technology
at a commercial scale and have a clear line of sight to near term revenue
generation. The business will raise funds at Series A to support the build out
of a commercial scale manufacturing facility.

In addition to the collaboration agreement with Alianza Team, announced by the
Company on 8 August 2023, Clean Food Group also recently signed a services
agreement with Doehler Group, designed to rapidly scale its fermentation
process to a commercial level, and enable the manufacture of product batches
required for regulatory approval for Cosmetics and Food applications.  The
scale-up process with Doehler is now well advanced, with a successful
fermentation run at 1,000 litres recently completed; the manufacture of
product batches for the regulatory approvals will be completed later this
year.

Additionally, in 2023, Clean Food Group strengthened its Operational team with
the hires of Dr. James Mercer, Head of Manufacturing and Scale-up, and Andrea
Cattaruzza as Head of Product. James will be responsible for the scale-up of
the Company's technology and brings over 25 years of experience in industrial
fermentation and scale-up of alternative proteins, having previously held
senior operational roles at Quorn, Croda, and DuPont, amongst others. Andrea
brings 30 years of experience from Mars Global Chocolate, most recently as
Director of Science. Andrea will drive Clean Food Group's product strategy,
developing high performance, sustainable ingredients for commercial partners.

 

Clean Food Group Co-founder and CEO Alex Neves says, "We are delighted with
the rapid progress the business has made in the past year. The successful
conclusion of this current funding round validates the important strides our
business is taking in solving critical sustainability and supply chain
challenges facing our food and cosmetic manufacturer customers. We are now in
a great position to validate our technology at a commercial scale, advance our
regulatory pathways and develop our growing list of commercial partners in
advance of our Series A next year".

Clean Food Group's technology platform is the result of eight years of
pioneering research led by Professor Chris Chuck, Technical Lead at Clean Food
Group. The proprietary technology platform uses proven, scalable yeast strains
and fermentation technology and uses food waste as its food source to deliver
sustainable alternatives to traditional oil and fat ingredients.

End of CFG's announcement

 

AIM Rule 12 Disclosures

CFG is a pre-revenue company.  In the unaudited financial statements for the
period 1 November 2021 to 31 December 2022, CFG reported a loss of £844,111.
This latest funding round completed at £0.165 (16.5 pence) per share suggests
a post money valuation of approximately £22.3 million.

 

- Ends -

 

 

 

For further information on the Company please
visit:    www.seedinnovations.co (http://www.seedinnovations.com/)
   or contact:

 

  Ed McDermott        SEED Innovations Ltd             E: info@seedinnovations.co 

 Lance de Jersey                                        
 James Biddle         Beaumont Cornish Limited,        T: (0)20 7628 3396

 Roland Cornish       Nomad                             
 Isabella Pierre      Shard Capital Partners LLP       T: (0)20 7186 9927

 Damon Heath          Broker
 Catherine Leftley    St Brides Partners Ltd,          E: info@stbridespartners.co.uk

 Ana Ribeiro          Financial PR

 Isabelle Morris

 

Notes

 

Seed Innovations Ltd

SEED Innovations is an AIM quoted investment company focused primarily on
disruptive high growth life sciences and technology businesses particularly
within the medical cannabis arena. The Company's strategy is to identify
early-stage opportunities that have an upcoming investment catalyst and grow
its portfolio in terms of value whilst limiting the number of investee
companies to a level where relevant time can be devoted to each.

 

About Clean Food Group

Clean Food Group is a UK-based food-tech business delivering sustainable oils
and fats solutions to the world's food and cosmetics manufacturers, with the
mission to deliver scalable, healthier, competitively priced ingredients that
have a positive impact on the economic, environmental, and social health of
the planet.

 

Clean Food Group is founded by a team with key experience in growing bio-tech,
food industry and retail businesses supported by established venture capital
and family office investors with a track record supporting fast-growth
start-up companies in highly regulated industries. Clean Food Group's
proprietary technology platform has been developed as a result of 8 years
pioneering research by Professor Chris Chuck, technical lead at Clean Food
Group, and the University of Bath.

 

 

 

 

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  UPDNKQBDABKKNFD