Phytolon Secures Funding from Rich Products Ventures to Bring Natural Food Colors to Market

Portfolio company Phytolon, a food tech startup that produces natural food colors using precision fermentation, recently secured an investment from Rich Products Ventures (RPV), the corporate venture capital fund of global, family-owned food company Rich Products (Rich’s), to help drive commercialization of its innovative, sustainable and clean-label solution for natural food colorings. As part of the investment, Rich’s will explore Phytolon’s proprietary color offerings in several of its products, in a mutually non-exclusive manner.

RPV’s strategic investment has been paired with additional support from existing Phytolon shareholders, including EIT-Food, Arkin Holdings and Yossi Ackerman. The funds will be used to further commercialize and scale Phytolon’s natural, precision fermented food colorants, which are expected to pass key regulatory approvals soon.

Produced utilizing the fermentation of Phytolon’s proprietary yeast strains, Phytolon’s natural colors offer a cost-efficient and sustainable substitution to synthetic food dyes without compromising performance. Beginning with two base colors derived from fermentation, Phytolon’s portfolio provides a full range of color shades, including purple, pink, red, orange and yellow, offering both a reliable and steady supply chain (compared to agriculture-based colors), as well as a simplified process to help food brands achieve vibrant, precise product colors.

Rich’s and RPV are laser-focused on driving innovation to create distinctive value for customers. As part of this strategic investment, Rich’s will explore Phytolon’s clean-label and eco-friendly solutions in several of its products to understand how the natural colors can potentially be applied to Rich’s portfolio of icings, toppings, baked goods and more.

This news appeared in: AgFunderNews, Food Ingredients First, and Ynet (Hebrew)