Startups

Geltor Lands $91.3M Series B

Biodesign startup Geltor has raised $91.3 million in a Series B round of funding, bringing its total capital to $116.3 million.

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Geltor makes proteins like collagen and elastin, but without animals. The startup’s products are used in beauty, food and beverage products.

While Geltor’s Series A round was more about going from the precommercial stage to the commercial stage, the Series B round will focus on helping more companies build sustainable products.

“We saw this opportunity to find some new partners and grow the platform to essentially help more brands build a sustainable product,” CEO Alexander Lorestani said in an interview with Crunchbase News.

With last year’s African Swine Fever and 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic disrupting the global supply chain, companies have been forced to look at how their products are made and how sustainable the process is, Lorestani said. Many are turning to animal-free products.

Geltor will be scaling its team to expand the number of companies it reaches. The company saw more revenue come in during the first quarter of 2020 than it did for all of 2019, Lorestani said, and Geltor has already taken its protein production platform up about 100 times to meet demand.

The round was led by CPT Capital with “significant commitment” from WTT Investment Ltd., the company said. Cultivian Sandbox, SOSV, and iSelect Fund returned as investors in the round, which included participation from new investors Blue Horizon Ventures, Humboldt Fund, Pegasus Tech Ventures, and RIT Capital Partners.

“The reason we’re so excited about Geltor, among other reasons, is it’s actually building the supply chain of the future,” CPT Capital investment director Costa Yiannoulis said.

CPT Capital operates with the view that animals are inefficient for protein supply chains and focuses on investing in companies that replace animals in the supply chain.

The company, which was founded in 2015 and is based in San Leandro, California, raised its Series A in 2018.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias

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