Meet the new rock stars of climate-friendly food

Producing food using only electricity and air might sound like a magic trick but Solar Foods has found a way of pulling it off.

The global carbon footprint could be significantly reduced with large-scale adoption of Solein as it is created completely without agriculture.

Solar Foods

The Finnish company’s technology can make what promises to be one of the world’s most carbon-friendly proteins, which it calls Solein, out of thin air – and at scale. Which CEO Pasi Vainikka, says makes Solein among a ‘wave of technologies’ that is about to ‘change our perception of food’.

Having attracted around €35 million of investment ahead of breaking ground on its new Factory 01 in Finland last year, the pioneering Finns have now received a further injection of €10m from The Pharmacy Pension Fund of Finland to plough into the facility.

“The investment in the property effectively releases a corresponding amount of equity for us to develop our core technology, so it’s a direct injection in our runway,” Vainikka explains. “I’m proud that we are able to demonstrate a unique set-up supporting the progress of a deep-tech start-up while creating a sustainable investment case.”  

Solar Foods, which was founded as a spin-off of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and LUT University, is expected to begin commercial production at Factory 01 in Vantaa early next year.

Emissions gap

An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report revealed last year that land use and agriculture are responsible for 24% of global emissions. Which makes Solar Foods, a company that says it wants to ‘disconnect food production from the accelerating consumption of natural resources’ one of our impact innovators to watch because Solein, a protein made without agriculture, is the type of paradigm shifting solution needed in response to what Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, calls the ‘now problem’ of climate change.