Geltor closed a $91.3 million Series B financing led by future protein pioneer CPT Capital, with a significant commitment from WTT Investment Ltd.
WHO: California-based Geltor was founded in 2015 by Alexander Lorestani and Nick Ouzounov and is based in San Leandro, California. The biodesign company has created the world’s largest selection of designer proteins, with unprecedented biocompatibility, functionality, and benefits for consumers. Geltor products are 100% animal-free, sustainably cultivated, and clinically demonstrated for high performance for CPG segments including cosmetics & personal care, nutraceuticals, and the food & beverage industries.
CPT Capital is the venture arm of a leading private family office. As a long-standing dedicated investor in the alternative protein space, they partner with the best and the boldest companies driving the food and materials technology revolution. From plant-based protein to recombinant proteins to cell-based meat, CPT Capital backs the most promising solutions from seed all the way through to sale or IPO and longer-term.
WHY: The funding will fuel the global expansion of Geltor’s Ingredients-as-a-Service platform and meet accelerating demand from global CPG companies for sustainable, functional, and 100% animal-free ingredients.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: “Our goal is to make it ridiculously easy for iconic brands to build sustainable products. This next stage of growth will allow Geltor to meet the moment our world is facing, as businesses recognize the urgent need to transition to a sustainable protein supply chain,” said Geltor CEO and co-founder Alex Lorestani. “We’re grateful to have investors who see Geltor as an index of this important shift to a system powered by fermentation and plant-based platforms like ours. As a scientist, I’m convinced that the highest-impact action I can take to support human and planetary health is making our Ingredients-as-a-Service platform better every single day.”
“Having established the success of our biodesign platform, we are now able to work even more closely with customers to develop unique tailored bioactive ingredients for their specific product needs. We’ve only scratched the surface of what our technology can unlock for our clients at unprecedented speed,” added Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Nick Ouzounov.
Noting Geltor’s position of strength from the emerging consumer biotechnology sector, Chief Financial Officer Sachin Kelkar said, “Since its founding, Geltor has focused on developing an industrial-strength Ingredients-as-a-Service platform based on the fundamental principles of functionality, breadth, scale, and speed to meet the pace of customer innovation in multiple end markets. We’re excited to leverage our strong balance sheet and investor base to scale business and manufacturing operations around the core platform to meet global protein demands for decades to come.”
“We see huge market potential for Geltor’s protein platform across categories from cosmetics to food. We are excited by the speed and skill with which they are building out their capabilities. Even more so, in light of the havoc wreaked by COVID-19 on protein supply chains globally, we believe Geltor is laying the foundations for the sustainable, resilient, protein supply chain of the future,” said Costa Yiannoulis, CPT Capital Investment Director and Geltor Board Director.
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