Agronomics Leads All G Foods Series A Financing

RNS Number : 8196U

Agronomics Limited

04 August 2022

 

4th August 2022

Agronomics Limited

("Agronomics" or the "Company")

Agronomics Leads All G Foods Series A Financing Round

Agronomics, the leading listed company focused on the field of cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce it has led All G Food Holding Pty Ltd 's (" All G Foods") Series A financing round with a AU $15 million (approximately £8.7 million) investment (the "Subscription"), subscribing for 2,803,214 Series A Preferred Shares. The Subscription is conditional on All G Foods' shareholder approval which is expected in Q3 2022. Agronomics will own 8.01% of All G Foods on a fully diluted basis following close of the round. The Subscription will be made using cash from the Company's own resources and will represent an estimated portfolio weighting based on the Company's last reported Net Asset Value of 5.8%.

All G Foods is an alternative protein, Asia-Pacific company focused on the commercialisation of its precision fermentation platform designed to create sustainable dairy products and dairy proteins. It also owns a rapidly growing plant-based meat business Love BUDS™ which it is commercialising through key channels throughout Asia-Pacific including the Woolworths group.

All G Foods, based in Sydney, Australia was founded in 2020 by CEO Jan Pacas. Jan is an experienced entrepreneur, previously founding and building successful businesses, with multiple successful exits, including Mad Paws Holdings Limited ( Mad Paws ) and Flare HR Pty Ltd ( Flare ) . All G Foods is aiming to be the first company in Asia-Pacific to commercialise next generation dairy proteins. Expanding off the back of its existing plant-based meat business, All G Foods will focus on markets in the Asia Pacific region, utilising its existing distribution channels to increase the reach of its animal-free dairy products. Its technical team, led by Dr Roman Buckow, and Dr Jared Raynes, a former food chemistry and dairy lead at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ( CSIRO -- Australia's government agency responsible for scientific research), is already showing an accelerated path toward commercialisation from the scale-up of its dairy proteins, including whey and caseins.

Agronomics has identified All G Foods as having leading dairy precision fermentation expertise and notably a focus on casein micelle formation, the 3D spherical assembly of casein proteins critical for full functionality in dairy products, which to date has been a challenge for other companies in the sector globally. Agronomics recognises the need for multiple successes in the precision fermentation dairy category, to disrupt the US $700 billion global dairy market.

Agronomics will join a key list of existing investors, including W23 Pty Limited (" W23 ") , the venture capital and innovation fund of Woolworths Group Ltd, Australia's largest supermarket chain and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation ( CEFC ) , Australia's AU$ 10 billion 'green bank' established to facilitate investment in clean energy sector, who both invested in the seed round. The remaining investors of the Series A funding round will be announced in due course. We believe the total funding will make All G Foods one of the best funded companies in the cellular agriculture sector in Asia-Pacific.

New Agrarian Company Limited "New Agrarian", the affiliate of Agronomics, will be investing AUD $10 million (approximately £5.8 million), on identical terms to Agronomics for 5.34%. In aggregate, Agronomics and New Agrarian will own 13.34% of All G Food on a fully diluted basis and have the right to a board seat following the close of the financing round.

Since this Subscription is considered a Substantial Transaction under AIM Rule 12, this announcement requires certain disclosures under Schedule Four. All G Foods is an early-stage company generating small revenues with operating costs of approximately AU$ 476,000 per month, and total assets as at 30 June 2022 of AU$ 8.8 million, including cash or near cash of AU$ 4.9 million with no material liabilities.

Jim Mellon, executive director of Agronomics commented:-

"We are delighted to be expanding our portfolio to include All G Foods, and increasing our exposure to the readily disruptable dairy industry, which is large enough to support multiple winners across different jurisdictions. We recognise Asia-Pacific as a growing market for alternative proteins and realise the need for further focus on precision fermentation dairy given the enormous markets and the cruelty of conventional dairy farming. Further, with our investment in Liberation Labs, we are taking a proactive approach to ensure the infrastructure and broader ecosystem is in place for industrial production by the time our portfolio companies are ready for large scale commercialisation."

Jan Pacas, founder and CEO of All G Foods added:-

'We could not be happier with Agronomics leading our Series A round due to their wealth of experience in funding the cellular agriculture sector. When looking for investment it is critical for us that our investors share our vision for developing technology that can change the way we impact the planet through categories that are simply not sustainable as our populations grow. We are confident with investors like this we are able to accelerate our commercialisation objectives and be the first in Asia-Pacific'

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014, as it forms part of UK Domestic Law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

About All G Foods

At All G Foods we know that proteins created through animal agriculture can't feed the next generations of humans. That's why our mission is to design a sustainable food future - one that is limitlessly good. We believe the solution to the growing protein demand is innovative, affordable, delicious, nutritious, and sustainable alternative proteins, so we're leading technological innovations for the creation of next generation dairy and meat. We're on a trajectory to develop the world's first-to-market identical dairy milk, entirely animal free through precision fermentation and doing plant-based differently to any other brand with our Love BUDS™ products. Our bunch of thinkers, doers, problem solvers, investigators, futurists, helpers and organisers all thrive here at All G Foods, and our differences make us better. Our people love what they do, love working with each other, and love leaving an imprint for a better future.

About Agronomics

Agronomics is a leading listed alternative proteins company with a focus on cellular agriculture and cultivated meat. The Company has established a portfolio of 24 companies at the Pre-Seed to Series C stage in this rapidly advancing sector. It seeks to secure minority stakes in companies owning technologies with defensible intellectual property that offer new ways of producing food and materials with a focus on products historically derived from animals. These technologies are driving a major disruption in agriculture, offering solutions to improve sustainability, as well as addressing human health, animal welfare and environmental damage. This disruption will decouple supply chains from the environment and animals, as well as being fundamental to feeding the world's expanding population. A full list of Agronomics' portfolio companies is available at  https://agronomics.im/ .

About Cellular Agriculture

Cellular Agriculture is the production of agriculture products directly from cells, as opposed to raising an animal for slaughter, or growing crops. This encompasses cell culture to produce cultivated meat and materials, and fermentation processes that harness a combination of molecular biology, synthetic biology, tissue engineering and biotechnology to massively simplify production methods in a sustainable manner.

Over the coming decades, the source of the world's food supply traditionally derived from conventional agriculture is going to change dramatically. We have already witnessed the first wave of this shift with the consumer adoption of plant-based alternative proteins but today, we are on the cusp of an even bigger wave of change. This is being facilitated by advances in cellular agriculture. This change is necessary, given scientists claims that if we maintain existing animal protein consumption patterns, then we will not meet the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to 1.5 ℃

AT Kearney, a global consultancy firm, projects that cultivated meat's market share will reach 35% by 2040. This combined with the Good Food Institute's estimate that a US $1.8 trillion investment will be required in order to produce just 10% of the world's protein using this technology, means that we are on the cusp of a multi-decade flow of capital to build out manufacturing facilities. Funding in the field of cellular agriculture is accelerating, however still less than US$ 4 billion has been invested worldwide since the industry's inception in 2016.

 
For further information please contact:

Agronomics Limited	Beaumont Cornish Limited	Canaccord Genuity Limited	Cenkos  Securities Plc	Peterhouse Capital Limited	TB Cardew
The Company	Nomad	Joint Broker	Joint Broker	Joint Broker	Public Relations
Richard Reed Denham Eke	Roland Cornish James Biddle	Andrew Potts Harry Rees Alex Aylen (Head of Equities)	Giles Balleny Max Gould Michael Johnson	Lucy Williams Charles Goodfellow	Ed Orlebar Alistair Walker
[phone] [e-mail]	[phone]	[phone]	[phone]	[phone]	[phone] [phone] [e-mail]

 

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