Whole Green Foods (Whole.) has announced a successful $1.5 million seed funding round, with the Grain Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and Artesian investing.
The GRDC will invest in Whole. through their GrainInnovate fund. GrainInnovate is a $50 million fund established by GRDC and managed by Artesian to invest in startups focused on helping Australian grain growers.
Nick Stamatiou, co-founder and CEO, says the investment will support the ongoing development of Whole.’s new food processing technology WINX™.
“This investment is a testament to the potential of the WINX™ technology and the positive impact it will have on the agrifood processing value chain and our planet,” said Nick.
WINX™, standing for ‘whole ingredient nutrient extraction’, seeks to reduce the amount of global food waste by using all ingredients when creating plant-based products. Nick says their process is chemical-free and will be cost-effective, and can make ingredients for food and drinks.
[WINX™] can use hundreds of different ingredients, but the main ones we are commercialising now are oats. We’re working with the biggest ingredient company now to commercialise functional oat products. That’s going to go to the market as an ingredient that WINX™ processed with zero waste.
Nick Stamatiou
Nick said the current process to create oat milk generates significant amounts of wastewater and decanted fibre, whereas the WINX™ process has neither of these waste streams.
The latest round of funding sees Whole. coming one step closer to bringing their disruptive WINX™ technology to the market. Nick says Whole. has now partnered with “[a big] ingredient manufacturer, we’re now just figuring out where we establish production. Maybe in WA or maybe up in Malaysia.”
Fernando Felquer, GRDC’s Head of Business Development, said the WINX™ technology is a prime example of GrainInnovate committing to “investing in solutions that can create value for Australian grain growers.”
“We are enthusiastic about this exciting venture that can create further opportunities for secondary processing of great Australian grains, to the benefit of Australian growers,” says Fernando.
An Artesian spokesperson also praised Whole.’s WINX™ technology, adding “Whole. is an outstanding example of an Australian business that is bringing to market a world-leading technology helping to create healthy and delicious foods of the future.”
The WINX™ technology is disrupting the way that food manufacturing has been carried out for the last 200 years
Artesian Spokesperson
Whole. says that this funding from venture capital firms and top angel investors will help them make a significant impact in promoting sustainability within the food processing industry.
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