Invest in the forgotten half of the harvest

The Supplant Company upcycles agricultural side-streams into replacements for the world’s most pervasive ingredients, such as refined sugar and starch, with their proprietary biotechnology-based manufacturing platform.

Up to two-thirds of the crops grown on farms worldwide are wasted or under-utilised, with only the grains typically used in the food system.[1] The Supplant Company has set itself the goal of addressing these leftover parts – the ‘forgotten half of the harvest’. They use these fibre-rich by-products as raw materials and convert them into ingredients that are more nutritious and more sustainable – without needing to plant a single extra crop.

Sowing Solutions, Reaping ­Resolutions

“We have developed a radically new way of making healthier and more sustainable ingredients by upcycling the parts of crops, such as corn cobs, oat hulls, and wheat straw, that are typically wasted or under-utilised,” says Tom Simmons, CEO & Founder of The Supplant Company. This approach, at scale, could provide farmers with additional income streams from ­under-utilised crop residues, produce more food per unit of land without a concomitant increase in greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss, and enable the integration of healthier ingredients into mainstream food products.

Markets are broad and ­opportunities abound

The average annual growth rate for refined sugar is 1-2% with an annual global market of USD 116 billion, with the food market about five times larger than the beverage market. Sugar substitutes in solid foods represent a global opportunity of USD 104 billion, of which USD 98 billion remains untapped. The global wheat flour market showed a similar picture: It reached US 241.0 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 305.8 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 3.9% between 2023 and 2028. To address these markets, The Supplant Company launched their first ingredients, Sugars from Fiber, in 2021 with seven ­Michelin-starred Chef Thomas Keller, ­followed by their Grain & Stalk Flour in 2023.

New facilities for future activities

The company has launched a range of consumer products available in retail ­locations in the USA as well as food ­service ingredients for professional ­kitchens, all made with SupplantTM Sugars from Fiber. It has raised over USD 27 million to date with investors including Manta Ray, Khosla Ventures, EQT Ventures, ­Felicis, Coatue, The Mills Fabrica, AgFunder and YCombinator. The Supplant Company is working with several global partners, including circularity projects to ­optimise the upstream supply chains of some of the world’s biggest brands. The Supplant Company have been looking for a suitable production site in Europe for ­several years and have recently short­listed two sites in Germany, one in Franconia and the other in Lower Bavaria. Adapt­ing existing facilities fits with their sus­tainability ethos by minimising construction activities, a significant source of GHG emissions, and also allows them to begin manufacturing more quickly, with first ­ingredients anticipated to roll off the ­production line in H2 2024.

SHORT PROFILE OF THE SUPPLANT COMPANY
Foundation: 2017
Legal form: Limited Company in United Kingdom, Inc. in USA
Sector: Food
Location(s): based in Cambridge, England; retails across USA
Employees: 21
Market cap: USD 165 million (19.9.2023)
Internet: www.supplant.com