Also known as water lentils.
If you're not familiar with duckweed, I don't really know where to start other
than you have some specific technology that is made something others have tried
a success. Yeah, well, we really tried to do it.
Plantbottle is to work backwards from

what the food industry needs, right?
I think over the past couple of years, we've seen the food industry being
overwhelmed with synthetic, unhealthy or allergenic ingredients, and we started
to look for a natural successor to these

unhealthy ingredients that they're using
today. We found that in an enzyme known as
Rubisco, which is, funnily enough, one of the most abundant proteins on the
planet. And millions of people are consuming it
on a daily basis because it's present in

every leafy green.
Now then we start to look for the most cost efficient and environmentally
friendly way of scaling Rubisco And we found that in this aquatic plant known
as Lima or some other people might call it water lentils.
And so why do you need the $30 million

kind of what's the process from here?
Yeah. So over the past couple of years, we've
built out our first commercial manufacturing module in West Texas.
And since then we've been able to start to fulfill some of the commercial demand
that's out there in the market. 

But we're seeing there aren't really
able to keep up with the demand that's out there.
And so we need to $30 million in order to continue to expand our manufacturing
operations in Texas to fulfill the commercial demand that's out there.
So, Tony, am I eating this now?

Is it available?
It is available. You can actually, there are some products
on the market that contain our product at the moment.
So absolutely, you can eat it right now. Where are you in sort of the general
approvals when it comes to the FDA, when it

comes to Food Safety authority as well?
Yeah, great question. So at the moment, myself, and the firm, we're working
with the FDA to get to the final letter of no questions from their
side. In the meantime, we're also working on a
formal approval from the European Food

Safety Authority, which we hope to get
by the end of 2025 or early 2026. What's it like in the world of raising
capital for food tech? AgTech right now?
Because it's been through some peaks and

troughs, shall we say.
Yeah, it's challenging, is maybe the right word, but I think we've been
working incredibly hard as a team to hit milestone after milestone, and that has
really allowed us to propel the company

forward so that we can scale up, but
also scale out our technology and prove that there's true product market fit for
our ingredients while actually discovering new and new market
opportunities every day of the week. Let's talk about the investors, why
they're interested in you.

Are they traditional technology
investors? Are they sort of thematically focused on
this space? And how did you go about doing this?
It's a pretty tough environment, actually.
Yeah, it is a pretty tough environment. I think like why are these companies, why are
the investors, both the

financial and the strategic investors
interested? For a couple of reasons.
Right. I think on the on the financial side,
we've obviously been able to show the de-risking of the technology, the
de-risking of the market risk, and it's

now a matter of solving the operational
risk as we move from being an R&D company to a full-fledged manufacturing
company. Very quickly, Chipotle is on there.
What's the kind of go-to-market? I'm assuming that's more a strategic
partnership than just financial?

Yeah, I think about Chipotle as a
company that's really whose mission it is to produce food with integrity and
basically create delicious, clean-label and healthy foods for the consumers out
there. And what we're able to do is we're able
to allow them to unlock new recipes or

improve their current recipes without
having to introduce new allergens or food safety risk containing ingredients.

Harvesting Plant-Based Proteins

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Bloomberg Technology

Introduction to Plantbottle and its use of duckweed (water lentils) to produce Rubisco.

Plantbottle uses duckweed, also known as water lentils, to create a sustainable and healthy food ingredient.

The company aims to replace synthetic, unhealthy, or allergenic ingredients in the food industry.

They utilize Rubisco, a highly abundant protein found in leafy greens, as a key ingredient.

Duckweed is chosen for its cost-effectiveness and environmental friendliness in Rubisco production.

Current production, expansion plans, and market demand.

Plantbottle has a commercial manufacturing module in West Texas but needs to expand to meet demand.

A $30 million investment is sought to increase manufacturing capacity and fulfill market demand.

The product is currently available in some market products.

Regulatory approvals and market challenges.

Plantbottle is working with the FDA and the European Food Safety Authority for regulatory approvals.

Raising capital in the food tech/AgTech sector is described as challenging.

The company is focusing on hitting milestones to demonstrate product-market fit and discover new opportunities.

Investors are interested due to the de-risking of technology and market risk, focusing now on operational risk.

Chipotle's partnership is highlighted as a strategic move, not solely financial.

The partnership with Chipotle allows them to create healthier, cleaner-label foods without introducing allergens.