Food Tech 500: Elo

We’re thrilled to announce that Elo is a winner of the FoodTech 500 – the world’s premier list of the most innovative companies at the intersection of food, technology, and sustainability.

We were selected from a highly competitive pool of more than 1,500 companies from more than 50 countries, and recognized for our unwavering dedication to improving the food system through our unique technology and focus on health and sustainability.

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Essential Ingredients: Molecular Biology Meets Consumer Demand for Natural Sweeteners with Todd Rands

Todd Rand, CEO/Presidentby Justine Reichman

“What we needed was the diversity of what nature provides, we needed to get better nutrition to more people… not in the big corporate way, but doing something different than anything that we’ve done before.” —Todd Rand.

With sugar consumption linked to health issues like obesity and diabetes, consumers are looking for healthier options that allow for moderation without compromise. Innovation in natural low-calorie sweeteners holds promise for addressing this need and empowering personal choices.

Led by CEO Todd Rands, ELO Life Systems is developing sustainable, natural ingredients by engineering plant biofactories. With decades of experience in molecular biology, agriculture, and venture capital, Todd’s vision is for ELO to make healthier, plant-based products accessible to all through agricultural innovation.

Join in as Justine and Todd explore ELO’s research process, partnerships with major brands, goals of making plant-based ingredients widely accessible, and leveraging molecular farming to revolutionize global agriculture and food production.

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WRAL TechWire: ELO Life Systems announces more than $20 million in new financing

Scientist in banana labBy Jen McFarland, WRAL TechWire

DURHAM — Just a year after their Series A financing round of $24.5 million, Durham-based Elo Life Systems has shared the announcement of an oversubscribed Series A2.

Like last year’s funding, this round is equity-based and involves 14 investors, according to the initial SEC filing. The company has also provided a press release announcing $20.5 million raised in this round, with financing led by DCVC Bio and Novo Holdings, both of which also participated in the Series A financing. The SEC filing leaves open funding up to $25 million.

Elo Life Systems was created in 2021 after being spun off from Durham’s Precision BioSciences (Nasdaq: DTIL). Elo focuses on food production and protection through molecular farming. The company’s most well-known success has been a partnership with Dole to develop a banana resistant to fungus. Their current focus is on a sweetener derived from monk fruit that is purported to be 300 times sweeter than sugar “without the calories.” That product is expected to launch in 2026.

 
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Triangle Inno: Durham firm raises $20M to scale its sugar alternative

Scientist in banana labBy Zac Ezzone, Triangle Inno

A Durham company has secured additional capital as it nears commercialization of its first product.

Elo Life Systems has raised $20.5 million from new and existing investors, bringing the company’s total Series A round to $45 million.

Novo Holdings and DCVC Bio led the funding, which included participation from Hanwha Next Generation Opportunity Fund, AccelR8 and Alexandria Venture Investments. The raise adds to a $24.5 million funding round that Elo disclosed in early 2023. The additional capital will help Elo start scaling up production of its first product. Since spinning out of Durham-based Precision BioSciences (Nasdaq: DTIL) in late 2021, Elo has focused internally on its research and development operations. The company has reached the point where it’s ready to move externally and begin producing its product at a broader scale, said CEO Todd Rands

Elo is developing a sweetener that’s derived from monk fruit, which grows in remote areas of China, making it difficult to access and harvest. Using molecular farming, Elo is taking the same ingredient from monk fruit and producing it in other crops that are easier to grow at scale. This includes developing a liquid form of its sweetener using watermelons and a powder version from sugar beets.

 

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