Smart Protein Fund

Joint Venture between Milltrust & Earth First Food Ventures

The Smart Protein Fund is a joint venture between Milltrust International (Investment Manager) and Earth First Food Ventures (Investment Advisor) to invest exclusively in the Smart Protein sector.

Earth First Food Ventures (EFFV) has built a reputation in recent years as a leading source of expertise in the Smart Protein sector, supporting the financing of some of the most compelling early stage companies in this space. Combining with Milltrust’s decade of investment management experience focused exclusively on Sustainability and Impact, the partnership will launch a dedicated fund for a more sustainable food supply chain and healthier protein production.

The purpose of the fund is to disrupt the world’s largest industry, Food, by channeling climate capital towards the scaling of the Smart Protein sector for a cleaner, healthier end-product, produced locally for local consumption, with a significantly lower carbon footprint and lower GHG emissions, while at the same time providing attractive returns in a fast-growing industry with innovative technologies.

Today, the Smart Protein industry represents 2% of current global protein consumption – a mere US$ 20Bn in top line revenue. However, over the next decade and a half, the industry is expected to scale exponentially with projected Global revenues in excess of US$ 500Bn, as an increasing number of participants enter the market with new innovative technologies.

Contact us to discuss how you can be involved.

Smart Proteins Team

Advisers

Portfolio Investments

BugEra

BugEra improve the natural traits of the Black Soldier Fly (BSF) through genetic engineering – creating a Modified Black Soldier Fly (M-BSF). This allows BugEra to rapidly develop novel strains to deliver an array of safe and sustainable bi-products. Backed by global leader in the production of biofuel, BugEra's first strain is already delivering for the rapidly expanding biofuel industry, decarbonising transport sectors such as aviation and shipping.

52 North Health

Cambridge medtech start-up 52 North Health has developed an innovative device, Neutrocheck, that rapidly identifies chemotherapy patients at risk of a life-threatening complication called neutropenic sepsis. Through improving triaging, Neutrocheck has the potential to save thousands of lives, free up valuable healthcare resources, and make patients' lives easier, simpler, and better.

Cody Genetics

Founded in 2022, Cody Genetics is an animal biotechnology company that applies gene-editing technology to benefit livestock farming. The company enables breeders to receive sperm/oocytes that not only will have a pre-determined sex, but that in turn will only produce gender-biased offspring through unassisted reproduction. The gene-editing technology offered by Cody dramatically improves animal welfare by preventing the culling of billions of animals and immensely reduces resource-use.

Jiva.ai

Jiva.ai is an AI company that uses a model fusion first approach to machine learning to provide a sophisticated platform that enables multi-modal AI. The core technology puts fusion at the heart of its learning procedure, enabling multimodal AI. Fusion is the process by which one can iteratively build partial models independently and then join them together to create bigger and better representations.Model fusion is a fundamental prerequisite to artificial general intelligence. Using the platform as a basis, the Jiva team will build practical diagnostic solutions to human diseases.

Roslin Technologies

Roslin Technologies is a biotech company pioneering sustainable solutions to support the food and agriculture sectors. Its mission is to advance disruptive innovations to improve how we produce proteins to feed the world’s increasing population. Its primary focus is on animal stem cells – and their huge potential as ingredients for supporting the global cultivated meat market..

Attomarker

Attomarker, a spin-out company from the University of Exeter, has produced a unique COVID-19 triple antibody testing device, giving a real-time analysis of immunity levels. The blood sample analysis tracks both the waning immunity from vaccines and ‘natural immunity’ boosts from COVID infections. The data it generates amounts to a personal COVID-risk profile for each individual.

Polymateria

Polymateria provides a tailored biodegradable solution for conventional plastic packaging, aiming to stem the global plastic pollution endemic. In 2020, the privately owned company was the first to achieve certified biodegradation of the most commonly-littered forms of plastic packaging in real-world conditions, in less than a year without creating microplastics.

SafeSpace

Singapore-based Safe Space offers a comprehensive online and offline mental health solution using therapy sessions and other resources. Using this system, patients and therapists can connect quickly, and patients can access therapy from anywhere in the world. The Safe Space platform strengthens mental resilience by providing quality, affordable tele-therapy care and prevention education.

Green Bioactives

Green Bioactives, a University of Edinburgh start-up, have developed innovative strategies to produce plant-derived natural products utilising plant cell culture with full freedom to operate. These technologies can significantly improve the yields of target natural products in cultured plant cells. This technology platform can be employed to produce high quality natural product ingredients for the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, food and agricultural industries.

Oncoshot

Oncoshot is a health insights exchange platform that leverages its proprietary clinical trial matching artificial intelligence (AI) technology to address the inefficiencies of cancer clinical trials. The platform serves as a bridge between leading regional healthcare institutions and contract research organizations (CROs) and global biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to facilitate data-driven cancer clinical trials while accelerating enrolment into actively recruiting ones.

Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

The British Innovation Fund II follows on from the success of The British Innovation Fund I, investing into high potential companies with a focus on agri-tech, the future of healthcare, climate impact, and alternative protein, where incontrovertible science is at the core of the commercial proposition.

The British Innovation Fund II monitors and invests in the next cohort of UK success stories, originating from our embedded network of universities, venture partners and angel groups. 18 UK universities are in the top 100 of global rankings. Our unparalleled university and national lab networks in the UK, Singapore and globally, provide access to a thriving ecosystem of start-ups with strong backing and support from government.

Contact us to discuss how you can be involved.

Smart Protein Fund

FUTURE OF FOOD

venture funds

Joint Venture between Milltrust & Earth First Food Ventures

Smart Proteins Team

Simon Hopkins

Alexander Kalis

Archie Thomason

Laurence Ingles-Le Nobel

Harry Paul

Hadyn Craig

Brian Ruszczyk

Ricardo Radwanski

Dr Ermina Topintzi

Mark Busch

Maximilian von Poelnitz

Ayan Dutta

Advisers

Portfolio Investments

BugEra

52 North Health

Cody Genetics

Jiva.ai

Roslin Technologies

Attomarker

Polymateria

SafeSpace

Green Bioactives

Oncoshot

Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

Team

Simon Hopkins

Alexander Kalis

Dr Bernard Ng

Hadyn Craig

Harry Paul

Laurence Ingles-Le Nobel

Archie Thomason

Celine Lin

Advisers

Rosalyn Breedy

Prof Paul Teng

Dr Roger Foo

Dr Ian Yeung

Dato Kim Tan

Dr Saif Ahmad

Glen Illing

CONTACTS

Milltrust International LLP

Milltrust International Group (Singapore) Pte Ltd