Helsinki-based Onego Bio gets €37M to develop animal-free egg protein

Helsinki-based Onego Bio, a food-biotech company, announced on Tuesday that it has secured $40M (approximately €37M) in a Series A funding round led by NordicNinja, marking one of the largest A-rounds in the Nordics. 

The round also included equity investments from Tesi and EIT Food, existing investors Agronomics, Maki.vc, Holdix Turret, and certain strategic partners. 

Additionally, the Series A round also includes a $10M (approximately €9.3M) non-dilutive funding from Business Finland, a public organization under the Finnish Government that supports innovation to accelerate systemic change to help solve major global challenges. 

The funding round brings the company’s total funding to $56M (approximately €52M).

Fund utilisation

The company will use the capital to fuel its North American go-to-market strategy, including scaling up to industrial-level production and expanding its US commercial team. 

To accelerate its market entry, Onego is partnering with co-manufacturers while finalising its in-house manufacturing plans. 

Onego’s manufacturing unit replaces 6 million laying hens with a 2M-liter fermentation capacity, resulting in a 90 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and a 95 per cent decrease in land use. 

The company is working to eliminate reliance on corn sugar and grasslands through alternative feedstock projects.

 The company is expected to receive self-affirmed GRAS status for Bioalbumen this year, with a no objections letter expected from the FDA in 2025. 

As a US-Finnish company, Onego is first launching in North America, where the regulatory landscape allows a faster market entry, followed by expansion in Europe, South America, and Asia.   

“We’re incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by a passionate team and like-minded investors who share our vision for systemic change in the food system. This powerful combination has fueled our rapid growth, allowing us to deliver a revolutionary ingredient that is unmatched in terms of functionality, taste, and texture”, says Maija Itkonen, Co-founder and CEO of Onego Bio. 

 Onego Bio: Developing animal-free egg protein

Founded in 2022 by Maija Itkonen (CEO) and Christopher Landowski (CTO) as a spinoff from VTT (Technical Research Center of Finland), Onego Bio is manufacturing real egg protein entirely animal-free through precision fermentation. 

“Egg protein remains one of nature’s most perfect foods; this single ingredient supplies more than 20 different functional benefits from aeration to emulsification and gelation. While it may sound scientific, the value is in our mouths every day with velvety cake structures, silky-smooth mayonnaises, crispy nugget batterings, or those chewy-fluffy nougat fillings, just to mention few,” adds Itkonen

The ingredient, Bioalbumen comes with with identical taste and nutrition, superior functional properties, and over 90 per cent smaller environmental footprint compared to eggs from chickens. 

According to the company, Bioalbumen contains all essential amino acids, has the highest possible protein digestibility score PDCAAS of 1.0, and delivers over 90 g of protein per 100 g. 

With a clean neutral flavor and superior functional properties, it’s 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 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.  

The company employs a patented fungal fermentation technology that is highly productive and scalable. It has demonstrated industrial production potential of 120 g/L in 250,000 L fermentation vessels, enabling it to achieve competitive pricing in comparison to conventional methods of producing egg protein.

The investor

NordicNinja is the largest Japan-backed VC fund in Europe and has a focus on investing in scaling companies that contribute to a more sustainable and digital society. 

The VC provides support to founders from an experienced Japanese-European team of founders, engineers, and operators turned investors, and access to a global network of 120+ blue-chip Japanese corporations.

“Onego Bio is taking all the right steps to commercialize in record time. They are a next-generation precision fermentation company, with a clear path to industrialization, go-to-market, and profitability. With technology that is designed to scale and such a strong team, they stand out,” says Tomosaku Sohara, Managing Partner, Nordic Ninja. 

“In less than two years, Onego is already working with major global food companies and is staged to disrupt the $330 billion egg market and create system-level change, accelerating the green transition,” adds Sohara.