If successful and pushed to a larger scale, Kaisa's company ProProtein may save a vast volume of Earth's resources and reduce the CO2 emissions from the dairy industry in general.
According to Cleantechforest.EE, this spring ProProtein will be raising a seed round funding for 700k€. This funding push comes after the company's co-founder and CSO Tiina Tamm confirmed successful casein extraction.
ProProtein team: Kaisa Orgusaar, Brenda Elizabeth Juárez Garza, Toni Bode and Tiina Tamm. Source: LinkedIn
What makes your product unique and what problems does it solve?
I have been interested in environmental protection for many years and am also vegan. While studying chemistry and food technology at TalTech (Tallinn University of Technology), I tried to create analogues of dairy products based on vegetable protein - for example, yoghurt, cottage cheese, cheeses. But I was not satisfied with their texture, taste and nutritional value. That's when I got the idea to get the milk protein casein in an ethical and resource-efficient way from genetically modified yeast. This will allow you to create cheese, yoghurt or cottage cheese with the same properties as real dairy products. Our startup is currently working with baker's yeast but plans to use alternative cultures in the future.
Source: Shutterstock
The process of casein extraction is as follows: first, the gene responsible for the production of this protein is integrated into the yeast genome. They grow in a liquid nutrient containing sugar and nitrogen. The protein is then recovered by centrifugation and filtration. We calculated that our technology requires 98% less water and 62% less energy than dairy farming, and also reduces the production of carbon dioxide by 84%.
FACT: Casein is used not only in food production but also, for example, in the manufacture of printer ink.
How did your project start? At what stage of development is it now?
When I studied at TalTech (Tallinn University of Technology) Master's program, I started looking for like-minded people to work on a project. And above all, I needed a specialist to create a new yeast culture. I wrote to my acquaintances who might be interested in such a project and asked them if they knew such a specialist. One of the letters was forwarded to molecular biologist Tiina Tamm, who got excited about our idea and became a co-founder.
Our first two competitions for funding in Estonia were unsuccessful, the third (from the ProVeg incubator in Berlin) brought us a grant of 10 thousand euros. We officially registered the company, and the realization of this shocked me a little. Six months later, we received an offer from Mariliis Holm, our first investor.
Please tell us about your team
In the spring of 2021, we became finalists of the Rethink Protein Challenge organized by Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and I was looking for new members of my team among the students of this university. There were so many applications that it was not easy to see them all. Our team included bioprocess designer Brenda Elisabeth Juarez Garza from Mexico, a food marketing specialist from the Netherlands Evelyn Russ, a chemist from Poland Adonis Hilal. Six months later, Toni Bode from Sweden joined our team and became our project manager (she already had experience in creating and administering a genetic laboratory in Melbourne).
How big can the market be for your products and in which countries? Does your company have potential customers?
In Europe, interest in vegan products is traditionally high. But GMO regulations make it very costly for a small company to enter the European market. Priority markets for us now are North America (especially Canada) and Japan.
So far, there is only one similar company in the world that has its own production - the Perfect Day (USA).
Have you started production? If so, has your technology been tested in any way?
In the near future, our main goal is to obtain a yeast culture that would be ideal for our purposes and to optimize the production of purified casein in the laboratory. It will be possible to talk about production no earlier than 2023.
Who has helped you on your way?
I must say that Estonia has a very favourable environment for start-up entrepreneurs, and we all support each other very much, help with information and contacts. I am grateful to the organizers of all the competitions in which we participated, the ProVeg incubator and our investors - Mariliis Holm and Ryan Betancourt.
What quality do you consider essential for entrepreneurs?
It seems to me that the most important trait for an entrepreneur is the courage to create something new from scratch. Many would like to start their own business, but few start. Another important quality is not to stop, even when you get bored or have no energy. If you are employed, you can change jobs, but if you start a company, it is like a child. You have to be one hundred per cent sure of your idea and committed to it because when times are hard, like now, no one will believe in it if you do not believe yourself.