Revo Foods – CPG
What it is:
Revo Foods is leveraging 3D printing technology to replicate the texture, flavor, and eating experience of plant-based seafood. They use plant-based ingredients like pea proteins, algae extracts, and dietary fibers and use industrial-scale 3D food printers to create a seafood alternative. This provides seafood distributors, restaurants, and retailers with a more efficient, sustainable, and moral way to produce and sell meat without compromising taste and texture.
Their first product is Revo Salmon – a plant-based smoked salmon product. It is made from algae extracts and contains proteins, Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and more. Revo Salmon is free of heavy metals and toxic waste and is made sustainably in Europe. Revo’s first products are already available in 16 European countries, including supermarkets in Austria and Germany.
The company plans to launch a line of fish spreads in 2022, and to introduce sushi and whole cuts sometime after that.
Who Made It?
Revo Foods was co-founded in 2020 by Robin Simsa (current CEO), Theresa Rothenbücher (Chief Scientific Officer), and Manuel Lachmayr (Chief Technology Officer). The company is headquartered in Vienna, Austria.
The founders, who all hold PhDs, met each other while working on the European Union-backed research project Training4CRM. They began exploring whether 3D printing technology could be applied to develop alternatives for seafood that could mimic the complex structure of cuts of fish, such as tuna and salmon, using only plant-based ingredients.
According to The Spoon, Revo is currently ironing out its production process, both by speeding up the actual printing, and by experimenting with other techniques that can be used to complement 3D printing. The company has aspirations for a production-scale facility that houses interconnected 3D printers of varying sizes.
Funding status:
- According to reporting from Vegconomist, Revo Foods recently received €2.2M (~$2.24M) in equity-free grant funding from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) to advance its 3D printing technology.
- The company raised €800K (~$814K) of venture funding in the form of convertible debt from Biogena Group Invest in August 2021. The company will use the funding to hire employees and expand production.
- The company raised €1.5M (~$ 1.53M) of seed funding from Hazelpond Capital, friends2grow, and 6 other investors in April 2021.
- The company joined Greenstart (accelerator) in July 2020 and received €6K (~$6,104) in funding.
Why we like it:
- Revo Foods and its 3D printing technology is unique in the seafood alternative market because they create whole cuts of plant-based seafood, which differs from other plant-based seafood products that are made using extrusion processing
- 3D printing has huge potential to disrupt parts of the food production industry
Did you know?
The global 3D food printing market should grow from $485.5M in 2020 to $1B by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.1% for the period of 2020-2025 Source