Ingredion leads investment round to accelerate start-up's
advanced technology for naturally reducing sugar
REHOVOT, Israel, Jan. 17,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- FoodTech start-up Better
Juice, Ltd., today announced its collaboration with Ingredion,
Inc. (NYSE: INGR), a leading global provider of specialty
ingredients to the food and beverage industry. Ingredion Ventures,
Ingredion's venture investment arm, will lead the Series A funding
round for Better Juice which will fast-track penetration of its
breakthrough sugar reduction solution into the US juice market.
Better Juice's innovative sugar reduction technology removes
simple sugars in juice-based beverages, concentrates and other
natural sugar-containing liquids. The Company developed an
enzymatic technology, which converts sugars into non-digestible
compounds, such as dietary fibers and non-digestible sugars, while
maintaining the natural profile of vitamins, minerals and organic
acids in the final product.
"This important partnership step is truly exciting," enthuses
Gali Yarom, co-founder and co-CEO of
Better Juice. "It dovetails perfectly with the Better Juice
strategy to penetrate the North American market. Ingredion was
impressed by our non-GMO technology, and its uses in a wide variety
of applications. This move will open doors to leading food and
beverage companies seeking sugar-reduction solutions for their
products."
"The Better Juice technology adds a completely new dimension to
our portfolio of sugar reduction solutions for food and beverage
brands on a mission to meet increased consumer demand for less
sugar," says Nate Yates, Sugar
Reduction Business Leader at Ingredion. "This technology also
provides manufacturers with more options to successfully reduce
sugar without compromising on great taste or nutrition."
Clean-label conversion
The environmentally friendly clean-label conversion process
applies proprietary beads composed of non-GMO microorganisms which
produce enzymes. These enzymes convert the juice's composition of
fruit sugars including sucrose, glucose, and fructose into
better-for-you prebiotic fibers and other non-digestible molecules.
This enables sugar reduction by 30 to 80 percent.
"This alliance will accelerate our go-to-market journey,"
explains Eran Blachinsky, PhD,
co-founder and co-CEO of Better Juice. "Ingredion's capital support
will allow us to extend the technology to other liquids with
natural sources of sugar, such as milk, beer, and wine."
This achievement follows Better Juice's well-established
partnership with GEA Group, one of the largest suppliers of food
processing technology.
Better Juice primed for commercialization
Better Juice's solution has successfully advanced to commercial
scale in the U.S. In recent years, it demonstrated its full
proof of concept in collaboration with juice manufacturers in the
U.S and Asia. These companies are
now poised to progress to the next stage of
commercialization. Better Juice is now fully prepped for
market entry, with a capacity to process 250 million liters of
sugar reduced juice per year.
Since 2022, the groundbreaking GEA Better Juice Sugar Converter
Skid is included in GEA's test center in Ahaus,
Germany. Better Juice collaborates with GEA for manufacturing
the bioreactor, and together they install the technology in
customers' facilities.
"Better Juice has achieved important milestones in the past two
years and has positioned itself as the leading company for reducing
simple sugars from natural sources," notes Amir Zaidman, VP of The Kitchen Hub. "The timing
is perfect for serving the rapidly expanding trend of consumers
striving to cut down on simple sugars in their diet."
About Better Juice
Better Juice, Ltd., was founded in 2018 by a team of biochemists
and microbiologists from industry and from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem with the aim of
helping beverage manufacturers produce better-for-you, lower-sugar
fruit juice., Their technology has accrued several patents,
The company was initially funded and supported by The Kitchen Hub,
Strauss Group's food-tech incubator, and has raised US$8M in seed-round investments. Better Juice now
has an advanced plant set up to fully serve its clients.
Better Juice partners include: The Kitchen Hub, part of Strauss
Group, iAngels, Maverick Ventures Israel, NEOME–Women's Investing
Club, Semillero Partners LLC, theFoodTechLab (TFTL) and S.
Schestowitz.
Most of the investors who participated in the seed round will
also join Round A. These include Emil Capital Partners from
Connecticut.
About Ingredion
Ingredion, Inc. (NYSE: INGR), headquartered in the suburbs of
Chicago, is a leading global
ingredient solutions provider serving customers in more than 120
countries. With 2022 annual net sales of nearly $8 billion, the company turns grains, fruits,
vegetables, and other plant-based materials into value-added
ingredient solutions for the food, beverage, animal nutrition,
brewing, and industrial markets. With Ingredion Idea Labs®
innovation centers located around the world, and approximately
12,000 employees, Ingredion co-creates with customers to fulfill
its mission of bringing the potential of people, nature, and
technology together to make life better. Visit www.ingredion.com
for more information and the latest company news.
Company
contact
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Press
contact
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Better
Juice
Eran Blachinsky Ph.D,
MBA
Gali Yarom
Eng.
Co-founders
E-mail:
eran@better-juice.com
E-mail:
gali@better-juice.com
Web:
www.better-juice.com
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NutriPR
Liat Simha
Tel:
+972-9-9742893
E-mail:
liat@nutripr.com
Twitter:
@LiatSimha
Web:
www.nutripr.com
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SOURCE Better Juice