Ferm Labs AG, a Swiss Italian ingredient innovator headquartered in Zug, has raised €3 million in seed funding to scale its proprietary bioprocessing platform across the global clean label ingredient market. The investment was led by CDP Venture Capital through its Green Transition Fund and NextGenerationEU, with a syndicate of European investors providing additional support. Participants include Fund F, Redstone in collaboration with Euregio+ and Alpine VC, and food industry leader Loacker.
Ending the Trade Off Between Cost and Clean Label
Industrial food production has often forced manufacturers to choose between inexpensive synthetic additives and slower, more expensive natural ingredients. Ferm Labs was founded in 2025 by serial entrepreneurs Stephanie Lüpold and Mattia Baroni to eliminate this compromise. The company guides non-GMO microbes through custom parameters to accelerate fermentation from weeks to hours.
High Yield Upcycling and Clean Label Outputs
The platform upcycles low value sidestreams into potent kokumi peptide profiles, creating stable flavour pastes and powders. These products are free from E-numbers, added fats, and high sodium content, aligning with clean label demands. According to the company, the system improves cost efficiency and naturalness while delivering full sensory performance.
A Commercial Flagship in Industrial Cheese
Ferm Labs' flagship flavour builder, Kokumesan, targets the European and United States industrial cheese market, which the company values at €68 billion. It is produced from liquid whey and delivers an authentic aged cheese profile. The ingredient reportedly offers 75 percent cost-in-use savings by reducing raw cheese inclusion from 20 percent to under 1 percent without sensory degradation.
Processability and Factory Economics
Kokumesan also addresses operational challenges in food manufacturing by eliminating fat and sodium build-up that can clog machinery. This high processability extends shelf life and supports smoother production runs. Ferm Labs states that these combined benefits are driving rapid commercial adoption among manufacturers that need cleaner formulations without operational downtime.
Investor Confidence and Strategic Support
The seed round was led by CDP Venture Capital through its Green Transition Fund and NextGenerationEU, with participation from Fund F, Redstone and Loacker. Redstone invested in collaboration with Euregio+ and Alpine VC. Enrico Filì, Head of the Green Transition Fund, said the firm is pleased to lead the round and support the team as it scales manufacturing and drives European expansion.
Capital Deployment and Growth Plans
The new capital will be used to expand bioprocessing capacity in Bolzano, South Tyrol, where the company operates its production engine. Ferm Labs also plans to grow its European business-to-business sales force and scale research and development headcount for new product categories. The company aims to strengthen its position across the broader clean label ingredient sector.
A Broader Clean Label Opportunity
The company is scaling its platform across the global clean label ingredient market, which it estimates at €45 billion. The technology is designed to serve multiple food categories beyond cheese, using sidestreams and fermentation speed as competitive advantages. This broader ambition supports the startup's goal of becoming a B2B ingredient engine for natural food production across Europe and North America.
With its first product already addressing a large industrial cheese market, Ferm Labs is positioning itself as a category-defining B2B ingredient engine for natural taste systems. The company argues that deep-tech bioprocessing can deliver natural sensory performance without the traditional cost penalty. As it scales manufacturing and commercial operations, the startup will test whether its platform can replicate this model across additional food categories.