Asterix Foods Emerges From Stealth With $4.2M, Promising Bioactive Proteins at a Fraction of the Cost of Precision Fermentation

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TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 8, 2025--

Asterix Foods, a startup tackling the cost and functionality challenges of precision fermentation, emerged from stealth today with the closing of a $4.2 million Seed round led by CPT Capital with participation from ReGen Ventures, SOSV, Grok Ventures and the Israeli Innovation Authority.

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Demand for high-value bioactive proteins is rising, keeping them at the center of food and biotech innovation. Today, most are made through precision fermentation, a process where microbes are genetically programmed to produce these valuable proteins in bioreactors. While effective, scaling this process is expensive: building a single precision fermentation facility requires $125–500 million in capital expenditure (CAPEX), often putting large-scale production out of reach in today’s funding environment.

Asterix has developed a breakthrough alternative. Instead of engineering microbes, the company uses plant cell suspension cultures inside Massively Parallel Modular Bioreactors (MPMB). This design slashes facility costs by more than 95% compared to traditional precision fermentation plants, cuts development timelines from years to months, and removes the need for construction of costly cleanrooms for the manufacturing environment, all while producing equal or greater amounts of protein with superior functional performance.

“Bioactivity makes these proteins so powerful for the food industry, unlocking new applications in food, nutrition, and health,” said Dan Even, CEO of Asterix Foods, who conducted PhD studies in Plant Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering at the Weizmann Institute of Science. “Our system shows how future production facilities can be deployed quickly, flexibly, and at dramatically lower cost.”

Because plant cells evolved as multicellular organisms, they possess an advanced cellular machinery essential for complex protein production, such as glycoproteins, that microbes cannot efficiently produce. Unlike conventional microbial fermentation, which relies on fast-growing organisms prone to contamination (necessitating SIP/CIP systems, GMP cleanrooms, and complex stainless-steel infrastructure), plant cells are naturally more resistant. This allows safe production in simpler production bioreactors, housed in standard food manufacturing facilities.

Today, Asterix operates a pilot facility in an office block in the heart of Tel Aviv, demonstrating how flexible production can be:

• Unbound by geography: Facilities operate independently of natural resource constraints, enabling deployment on non-arable land and strategic co-location with manufacturing hubs to reduce transportation costs and emissions.
• Modular build-outs: Compact, low-CAPEX units let customers start small and scale as demand grows, with the ability to run dual production lines and manufacture diverse proteins on a single line.
• Year-round production: Traditional precision fermentation plants only run a few bioreactors and face heavy downtime for cleaning and maintenance. Asterix’s modular system enables continuous, year-round production with virtually no interruptions.
• Low resource intensity: Operating at room temperature, Asterix’s bioreactors cut energy use for heating and cooling and dramatically reduce water consumption by removing the need for cleaning or steam cycles.

“Asterix’s capex-light and modular system gives them and their customers flexibility to locate production exactly where it’s needed,” said Harry Kalms, Investor at CPT Capital. “CPT has long supported removing animals from the supply chain but what’s exciting now is the clear pull from the market. Companies are recognizing the limits of today’s protein supply chain and looking for ways to produce high-value, bioactive proteins at a fraction of the cost, and at unprecedented volumes.”

"Plant cell suspension cultures are already used by at least 16 global corporations for producing everything from vaccines to food pigments," said Po Bronson, General Partner at SOSV and Managing Director at the IndieBio startup development program. "Asterix is now pushing this platform further, opening new opportunities to produce alternative proteins with unprecedented cost-efficiency and precision. What makes Asterix’s even more compelling, is its modularity. Partners can start profitably at low volumes with minimal upfront investment and scale up incrementally. Even small facilities can produce multiple proteins in parallel."

Having validated its platform across a range of proteins, Asterix is now engaging directly with corporates to target proteins critical for future supply chains, proteins currently unavailable today in sufficient quantities.

This new funding will enable Asterix to expand its Tel Aviv pilot facility and begin delivering samples to selected customers.

About Asterix Foods

Founded in 2022 by Dan Even (Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science), Asterix Foods pioneers plant cell culture systems to address two major challenges in alternative protein production: high capital costs and scalable manufacturing of complex bioactive proteins difficult to produce via traditional precision fermentation. Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, the company is driven by a multidisciplinary team of eight Ph.D.-level researchers spanning biotechnology and engineering. Backed by leading investors including CPT Capital, SOSV (IndieBio), ReGen Ventures, Grok Ventures, and the Israel Innovation Authority, Asterix Foods advances a new frontier in sustainable protein innovation.

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KEYWORD: ISRAEL MIDDLE EAST

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: GENERAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL SERVICES BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY FOOD/BEVERAGE FITNESS & NUTRITION RETAIL BIOTECHNOLOGY TRANSPORT FINANCE HEALTH LOGISTICS/SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT FOOD TECH

SOURCE: Asterix Foods

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PUB: 10/08/2025 12:53 PM/DISC: 10/08/2025 12:52 PM

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