Voyage Foods hopes to pursue 'coffee without the coffee beans' following new investment | Photo credit: Voyage Foods

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Californian synthetic food ingredients firm Voyage Foods has announced the closing of a Series A funding round worth $36m. The most recent funding round was co-led by funds managed by UBS O'Connor and Level One Fund, with participation from Horizons Ventures, SOSV's Indie Bio, and Social Impact Capital, and brings Voyage's total funding to date to $41.7m.

Promoting itself as an ethical and allergen-free alternative to traditional food ingredients, Voyage Foods’ products include peanut-free spread and cocoa-free chocolate, which will be launched at in-store and online retailers in the second quarter of 2022.

The company is also developing ‘coffee without the coffee beans’ but has yet to specify a launch date for the product.

The organisation has set its sights on to tackling the growing number of environmental and sustainability issues facing the coffee industry, including unstable weather patterns contributing reduced yields and higher prices.

"At Voyage, we're future-proofing time-tested favourite foods so that we can enjoy them for years to come without having to worry about their impact on the environment and unjust labour customs that contributed to making them," said Adam Maxwell, CEO, Voyage Foods.

"We're thrilled to be working with dynamic investors who are committed to helping us create delicious versions of traditionally unsustainable food products that won't be limited by climate change, humanitarian concerns, or immunological issues."

Last year, US start-up Atomo Molecular Coffee became the first company in the world to launch a synthetic coffee product manufactured without organic coffee beans. Both Atomo and Voyage Foods count Hong Kong-based Horizons Ventures as an investor.