Untapped Ventures Joins At One Ventures and Index Ventures in Climax Foods’ Seed Round to Revolutionize Dairy Alternatives
Climax Foods Leads the Charge in Sustainable Dairy Innovation, Tackling Environmental and Nutritional Challenges with AI-Driven Solutions
Oliver Zahn is deeply familiar with the intersection of culinary delights and science. A native foodie to southern Germany, Zahn brought his passion for food to the United States, where he devoted himself to advanced post-doctoral studies in astrophysics at Harvard University. Following his academic achievements, Zahn led the Center for Cosmological Physics at UC Berkeley, alongside two Nobel laureates.
Zahn's journey to founding Climax Foods in 2019 was fueled by his extensive experience in leading data science efforts at companies like Google, SpaceX, and Impossible Foods, where he honed his expertise in leveraging technology for innovative solutions. Climax Foods is the first company in history to successfully replicate the functionality, texture, and taste of the major protein in animal milk using only plant ingredients
Dairy cultivation methods are rooted in a 10,000-year-old practice in livestock, with cheese and egg production consuming over 189 trillion gallons of water annually, while producing more greenhouse gas emissions than all modes of transport combined. While there are alternative dairy products on the market, these products do not meet consumers’ needs of taste or price. 50% of consumers who have tried alternative cheese products but do not continue to purchase complain of poor taste, while 32% cite financial barriers as the reason they refuse to rely on these products.
Leveraging artificial intelligence and a precision formulation process, Climax Foods boasts a dairy alternative using a simple recipe with clean ingredients that are 10x more sustainable than using animals to make milk.
The Climax Foods team, composed of both food enthusiasts and scientists, holds a deep appreciation for the intricate flavors and textures that define dairy products. However, they are acutely aware of the significant inefficiencies plaguing traditional dairy production, such as the staggering requirement of 700 gallons of water to produce just one pound of cheese. Under the leadership of CEO and Founder Oliver Zahn, Climax Foods has innovated a production process that dramatically reduces water usage, utilizing 500 times less water at their current pilot scale. This pioneering approach is not solely aimed at providing vegans with superior alternatives but is designed to offer a more sustainable and appealing option for all consumers, including those with a fervent passion for cheese.
Tapping into his data and food science background, Zahn and team have uncovered a plant casein through artificial intelligence technologies. Their product mimics dairy in every way that matters. What makes that so unique? Casein is the functional protein that gives dairy all of those taste worthy qualities loved by consumers, such as stretch, melt, and browning.
Moreover, the precision formulation process ensures that Climax Foods can create this protein sustainably at scale, with prices that match those of traditional animal-based casein. This revolutionary process used artificial intelligence and data science to rapidly vet +300K plant ingredients and identify and match protein behaviors between animal products and plants in weeks. With industrial animal agriculture contributing to global warming and depleting the Earth's resources, this scientific breakthrough represents a significant win for the planet and a massive milestone for the future of food, trailblazing toward broad adoption of dairy alternatives.
The company recently partnered with 150-year-old French dairy cheese giant Bel Group, makers of Babybel, Boursin, and the Laughing Cow, to create more sustainable, dairy-free versions of its most beloved cheese products. Climax Foods is using its functional proteins to create more sustainable, better tasting versions brie, blue, feta, mozzarella and chèvre cheeses. Don’t take the founder’s word for it – the company’s first cheese products have been wholeheartedly embraced by world-renowned chefs Dominique Creen, Jean Georges Vongerichten, and Matthew Kenney.
Climax Foods’ initial focus is creating a better, dairy-free alternative to cheese, its AI-driven approach to food science has applications in replacing animal-derived foods on a much larger scale.
At Untapped Ventures, we are firm believers in next-generation technology that uplifts and sustains humanity. Untapped Ventures is beyond thrilled to contribute to Climax Foods’ Seed extension round, alongside notable investors like At One Ventures, founded by visionary GoogleX co-founder Tom Chi, and Index Ventures, bringing the total amount of funding to $28M. These funds will pave the way for creating plant-based and cost friendly alternatives to other dairy free-products using AI technologies.
I can't tell if this a new $7.5m tranche or you joined the seed round that has totaled this amount. Can you clarify?