Key facts:

• Biomilq, a US startup based in North Carolina raises $3.5M to work on its lab-grown alternative to breastfeeding milk
• The deal was made during the lockdown without any in-person meeting between the founders (in the above picture) and the investors (among with breakthrough ventures energy, a group of investors led by Bill Gates)
• The company is not yet communicating a target deadline to reach the market but it could be as soon as in 2 years

Why it matters – DigitalFoodLab’s opinion:

The number of startups working on dairy alternatives (other than plant-based) is quite small. Only one startup, the Singapore-based TurtleTree Labs is also known to work on lab-grown dairy (with an unclear focus on which milk it would be replicating). Indeed, while most cellular agriculture startups focus on meat, dairy is the domain of fermentation startups, such as Perfect Day or Legendairy Foods.

Outside of formula, Biomilq may not be a short-term (and even long-term) threat to most of the dairy industry. Switching from human to cow’s milk is not obvious and would require much work. However, by targeting such a sensitive category, Biomilq could educate the consumers of Europe and the US (its target markets) on cellular agriculture and its benefits. If parents feel that biomilq’s offering, identical to human breastfeeding milk is better than a cow’s milk for their children, they could then easily switch their meat, fish and other dairy intakes to lab-grown foods.