DURHAM, NC - Elo Life Systems is well on its way to scaling and commercializing its next-generation ingredients, especially following its oversubscribed Series A2 financing round. During the round, the innovator raised $20.5 million, bringing its total to $45 million raised to date.
"At Elo, we're on a mission to unlock nature's abilities to make consumers' favorite foods more delicious, healthy, and planet-friendly," said Elo Chief Executive Officer Todd Rands. "With strong support from our investors, we're well positioned to scale up our production and stay on track to launch our first product in 2026."
This latest round of funding will help the company further scale and commercialize its sweetener product, according to a release. It will also help Elo increase its molecular-farming pipeline of healthy and sustainable ingredients and expand its crop protection and productivity efforts, including work to save the banana from extinction.
Through its molecular farming platform, Elo produces ingredients that are difficult to harvest from natural sources and cannot be synthesized through artificial or other techniques. It uses easy-to-grow crops as biofactories for these ingredients, enabling local, commercial-scale production while reducing their cost and environmental footprint.
Elo's first molecular-farming product is a natural, monk-fruit-derived sweetener that is 300 times sweeter than sugar without calories. It can be used in thousands of food and beverage products to reduce sugar and artificial sweeteners while enhancing nutrition, and it will be launched in 2026. The company is also exploring the production of other ingredients, including novel proteins, natural preservatives, and high-value flavors and bio-actives.
Additionally, Elo is working with major companies and NGOs to protect staple crops around the globe from the effects of disease and climate change. This includes a partnership with Dole to create a fungal-resistant Cavendish banana to save the popular fruit from extinction. The banana proved successful in greenhouse testing and is currently undergoing field trials in Latin America.
To read more about Elo and its funding, click here.
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