Planet A Foods uses a precision‑fermentation platform to produce plant‑based alternatives to cocoa, cocoa butter, and other specialty fats. By fermenting locally sourced feedstocks with engineered yeasts, it creates ingredients that match the flavor, texture, and functionality of traditional products while reducing carbon emissions, price volatility, and deforestation risk. The company supplies these scalable, low‑cost ingredients to large food manufacturers and confectionery producers for sustainable supply‑chain resilience.
Funding
$30M raised to dateRaised to date based on public sources. This may differ from the amount the company actually raised and is based only on what is publicly available on the internet.
6OBPFounders
Product
Problem
Food manufacturers rely on commodity crops such as cocoa, palm oil, and animal fats that are vulnerable to climate change, disease, geopolitical instability, and supply‑chain disruptions, leading to volatile prices, environmental impacts, and uncertain availability.
Solution
Planet A Foods uses a scalable precision‑fermentation platform to produce plant‑based ingredient alternatives from microorganisms such as engineered yeasts. By fermenting locally sourced feedstocks (e.g., sunflower seeds), the company recreates the flavor, texture, and functional properties of traditional ingredients like chocolate and cocoa butter while drastically reducing carbon emissions and eliminating deforestation risks. The resulting ingredients are manufactured at industrial scale, offering a stable, low‑cost supply chain that can be produced in multiple regions. Partnerships with major food companies, such as Barry Callebaut, enable rapid market adoption of these sustainable substitutes across confectionery and broader food categories.
Target Audience
Primary customers are large‑scale food manufacturers, confectionery producers, and ingredient buyers seeking sustainable, high‑performance substitutes for cocoa, cocoa butter, and other specialty fats.
Features
- Fermentation‑based production of cocoa‑free chocolate alternative (ChoViva) with identical snap, melt, and mouthfeel to traditional chocolate
- Yeast‑derived cocoa butter equivalent (ChoViva Butter) that is compositionally identical to conventional cocoa butter yet offers lower price volatility and carbon footprint
- Customizable fat and oil platform that can generate a wide range of lipid structures from simple nutrients, allowing formulation of specialty fats for various applications
- Scalable industrial process delivering >10,000 t/year of ChoViva and secured 14,000 t production capacity for future ingredients
- Life‑cycle assessment (LCA) verified carbon savings of up to 80 % per kilogram compared with conventional counterparts
- Compatibility with existing manufacturing lines (chips, liquid tanks) and standard food‑industry specifications
- Transparent, short supply chain using locally available crops, reducing dependence on tropical commodity markets