By Erin Cabrey

Two plant-based startups, Emergy Foods, producing a proprietary ingredient for meat alternatives, and subscription smoothie mix Kencko, both announced recent fund raises last week. While Emergy Foods looks to expand production capacity at its new Boulder, Colorado headquarters, Kencko will focus on improving its sustainable packaging and expanding its flavor portfolio.

Emergy Foods Closes $4.8M Round to Expand Production Capacity

Plant-based protein startup Emergy Foods closed a $4.8 million venture capital funding round last week, which will allow the company to increase the production capacity of a (yet-to-be-announced) sustainably sourced proprietary ingredient used to create meat alternatives.

Emergy Foods CEO Tyler Huggins told NOSH that the company is using the undisclosed ingredient to produce all-natural, plant-based meat alternatives with the texture of whole muscle meat. He said this will lend itself to plant-based chicken breasts, pork chops, and possibly fish and beef.

“I don’t think there’s anything on the market right now that can match the textural qualities of a whole muscle meat,” said Huggins. “We’re looking at different white spaces that we believe are untouched in the market right now, and we’ll be coming out with a variety of different products.”

The funding round was led by Congruent Ventures, with Prelude Ventures, Better Ventures, 50 Years, New Crop Capital, The March Fund I LP, Trust Ventures, and Bluestein & Associates also taking part. While this was the company’s first round of institutional funding, it previously received $1.3 million in grants from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, and Chain Reaction Innovations.