FoodTech | South Africa
Aspyre Foods produces dairy proteins that are good for people and our planet, without cows.
What they do:
Aspyre Foods is a climate-focused startup that produces dairy proteins in plants, operating at the intersection of biotech, deeptech and foodtech. Their first protein is casein, the critical functional protein responsible for the texture, meltability and stretchability of cheese. Their plant of choice is duckweed (aka water lentils or Lemna), which is a remarkable plant with an exponential growth rate and a protein density up to 10x higher than soybean. This extraordinary plant, along with their unique biotech approach, are the two pillars on which they aim to build the world’s most efficient, scalable and resilient protein biofactory, without cows.
Why we Invested:
The global cheese market is valued at over $140 billion and continues to grow, yet its production is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and resource-intensive agriculture. Aspyre Foods is tackling this challenge head-on by developing a molecular farming platform using duckweed to produce casein the key protein in cheese without the environmental burden of traditional dairy.
Aspyre’s approach stands out for its unique biological platform and deep scientific rigor, leveraging duckweed’s exceptional protein yield, rapid growth, and low input requirements to produce animal-identical proteins sustainably and cost-effectively.
The Founder:
Thomas Bartleman is the Co-Founder and CEO at Aspyre Foods. He is a second time founder with over a decade of experience across Africa and the US, spanning the energy, water, transportation and fintech industries. This, combined with a Bachelors in Physics, and a Masters in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University, enables him to easily switch between scientific details and systems-level thinking and pull from the various mental frameworks required to build Aspyre Foods.
Inge Mendelsohn is the Co-Founder and CSO at Aspyre Foods. She has over a decade of experience that spans molecular biology, bioinformatics, and molecular farming, and is the co-author of a molecular farming patent. During and after her Masters degree at the University of Cape Town, she developed a plant virus testing kit that is now the standard for the South African wine and grape industries, and is being sold in the US.
Active in:
South Africa
