Oobli and Ingredion Announce Partnership as Demand for Sweet Proteins Accelerates
Ingredion Ventures, Lever VC, and Sucden Ventures join existing key investors to close an $18M funding round.
DAVIS, Calif., Feb. 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Oobli, the first company in the world to successfully build a sweet protein platform, today announced its partnership with Ingredion, a leading global ingredient solutions provider. Together, Oobli and Ingredion will accelerate industry access to great-tasting, affordable and healthier sweetener systems by bringing natural sweetener solutions like stevia alongside Oobli proteins – proteins that sweeten.
"Sweet proteins are a long-overdue addition to the toolkit of better-for-you sweeteners," said Ali Wing, CEO at Oobli. "Working with Ingredion's best-in-class teams to pair natural sweeteners with our novel sweet proteins will deliver game-changing solutions in this important, growing and timely category."
Sweet proteins are a great-tasting, healthier sweetener that can be a foundational part of any combination of sweetener ingredients in food and beverages, including sodas, baked goods, yogurts, candies and more. Sweet proteins can also be used to cost effectively complement other natural sweeteners, helping food companies achieve ideal levels of sweetness, meet nutrition objectives and manage costs.
"We've long been at the forefront of innovation in sugar reduction solutions, and our work with sweet proteins is an exciting new chapter in that journey," said Nate Yates, VP and GM Sugar Reduction and Fiber Fortification, CEO Pure Circle at Ingredion. "Whether we're enhancing existing sweetener systems with sweet proteins or using our established sweeteners to unlock new possibilities, we see incredible synergies across these platforms."
Oobli and Ingredion recently tested several co-developed products to better understand the opportunities for sweet proteins and stevia. Both companies shared enthusiasm about the consumer feedback collected, which ultimately led to the partnership. Next month, the two companies will unveil some of these novel sweet treats at Future Food Tech in San Francisco on March 13-14, 2025.
This partnership news follows recent announcements by Oobli that it had received FDA GRAS "no questions" letters for two sweet proteins (monellin and brazzein), confirming that these novel sweet proteins are safe to be used as a sweetener in food and beverage products.
In addition to their latest regulatory and partnership announcements, Oobli has also recently completed $18M in Series B1 funding, adding new strategic food and ag investors including Ingredion Ventures, Lever VC, and Sucden Ventures. These new investors join existing Oobli investors Khosla Ventures, Piva Capital, B37 Ventures and other leading investors.
This round supports Oobli's expansion across food and beverages with sweet proteins, both as a standalone solution, as well as in combination with other natural sweeteners, such as stevia, developed in partnership with Ingredion.
About Oobli
Oobli is a sweet protein technology platform company focused on replacing sugar in food and beverages. Sweet proteins have no glycemic impact or effect on the gut microbiome. Produced via fermentation, Oobli sweet proteins are both cost-effective as a sweetener replacement and climate friendly, saving massive amounts of land, water and carbon compared to farmed sugarcane. Oobli is the first and only company in the world regulated to sell sweet proteins as a sweetener, with two FDA "no questions" letters, four proteins with self-affirmed FDA GRAS status and one protein with FDA FEMA GRAS status. In addition to selling its own protein-sweetened chocolates, Oobli partners with companies to help deliver great-tasting, affordable and healthier products. For more information, visit oobli.com.
About Ingredion
Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) headquartered in the suburbs of Chicago, is a leading global ingredient solutions provider serving customers in more than 120 countries. With 2024 annual net sales of approximately $7.4 billion, the company turns grains, fruits, vegetables, and other plant-based materials into value-added ingredient solutions for the food, beverage, animal nutrition, brewing and industrial markets. With Ingredion's Idea Labs® innovation centers around the world and more than 11,000 employees, the company co-creates with customers and fulfills its purpose of bringing the potential of people, nature, and technology together to make life better. Visit ingredion.com for more information and the latest company news.
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SOURCE Oobli