LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Agronomics has completed a subscription of €1m for 2,389 'Series Seed Preferred Shares' in LegenDairy Foods, it announced on Wednesday.
The AIM-traded firm said that would be paid using cash from its own resources, adding that it would hold a 6.3% interest, and had appointed a director representative.

It co-led the €4 million seed fundraising round of LegenDairy alongside M Ventures - the corporate venture capital arm of science and technology company Merck.

CPT Capital also participated in the round, which Agronomics described as a long-standing investor in alternative protein technologies, with their portfolio including Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Memphis Meats, Perfect Day and Good Catch.

LegenDairy is a German company focussed on harvesting real dairy proteins, using the same fermentation process used for producing insulin and rennet for cheese, to produce dairy products once combined with plant-based fats.

LegenDairy was co-founded by Raffael Wohlensinger and Dr Britta Winterberg, with the intention to produce genuine dairy products, without cholesterol and without the need for animals, alleviating animal welfare concerns and providing a simplified supply chain to produce dairy products.

The team is reportedly focusing on cheese products initially, recognising that existing vegan cheese lacked the identical proteins found in dairy cheeses, being casein and whey protein.

"In the next decade, we expect there will be a seismic shift in the methods used for protein production," said Agronomics chairman Richard Reed.

"This will be supported by the recognition that industrial scale dairy farming is energy inefficient and a concern for animal welfare, especially considering the constant impregnation of dairy cows to produce milk.

"LegenDairy is at the forefront of this wave, and we are thrilled to be a part of their journey to provide delicious cheeses without the necessity of raising animals."

Raffael Wohlgensinger, co-founder and chief executive officer of LegenDairy, added that the food industry had "crossed an inflection point", explaining that for the first time in human history, real dairy products could be produced without the need to breed and raise animals.

"We are delighted to team up with Agronomics and other leading investors in the alternative protein field to fully leverage our core technology and bring our delicious, animal-free cheese to market in the coming years."

At 0901 GMT, shares in Agronomics were down 2.62% at 5.38p.

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