There is a pressing need to produce more sustainable feed sources to meet the growing global protein demand.
Calysta, based in Menlo Park, Calif., has been developing a low-cost, environmentally-friendly protein called FeedKind, a fishmeal and livestock protein substitute made from naturally-occurring microbes grown through fermentation.
Calysta has closed a $40 million Series D round, led by Mitsui & Co., the Japanese trading firm, and Temasek, Singapore’s state investment fund. Earlier investors re-upped, including agriculture giant Cargill and Aqua-Spark, the sustainable aquaculture venture fund based in the Netherlands.
Mike Velings, co-founder of Aqua-Spark, said Calysta has made “a simply gargantuan effort” to develop FeedKind, which is expected to go into commercial production in 2019.
Fish meal is no longer a commodity, but a strategic component of aquaculture, the world’s fastest-growing agricultural sector and a larger protein provider than the global beef industry.
