Lessons learned to build a FOAK facility that scales sustainable protein

The protein transition faces significant financing challenges as VC funding declines and non-dilutive capital remains limited.

To unlock their full potential, startups are adopting creative strategies, including co-manufacturing, government programs, partnerships with food corporations, and equipment leasing.

Or by going one step further: implementing FOAK strategies to build their industrial-scale plant.

Enter Brevel.

Brevel is addressing the challenge of scaling up sustainable protein production by integrating microalgae with advanced fermentation technology.

And they have successfully implemented the FOAK (First-Of-A-Kind) strategy method by building their first plant for proprietary industrial-scale fermenters for microalgae protein. 

Before their Co-Founder and CEO, Yonatan Golan joins us at the HackSummit later this week, we caught up with him to hear about the hurdles and opportunities to build FOAK facilities.

Scaling beyond FOAK

Beyond the obvious financing gap, which they managed to overcome, Yonatan shares the main challenges they navigated in the transition from a pilot plant:

“The biggest challenge is the mentality change that a company has to go through as it transitions from R&D to manufacturing. Instead of the “move fast, break things” startup mindset, you need to get in people and especially change the culture to “move deliberately and make things work” mentality.”

As they look to scale further beyond the FOAK facility to enable larger production lines, Yonatan tells of the biggest lessons they’ve learnt so far:

“The biggest lessons are of the importance of building a solid foundation, both literally and figuratively. Plan well, build the infrastructure you really need, work with the right people, don’t cut corners but still be very cost-effective and do good contingency planning.”

Pathway to Scalability

Brevel is on a mission to revolutionize sustainable food systems by producing cost-effective, neutral-tasting microalgae protein. 

To achieve this, they cannot work alone. 

To really solve the nutrition crisis and move the climate-change needle, Brevel is working with global partners. 

Yonatan tells us: Brevel’s value is in technology development, improvements, optimization and future product development and not in industrial manufacturing and factory management. We are working with partners who have the experience, expertise and capital to build and operate manufacturing JV’s in different locations in the world.” 

Now that they have their FOAK up and running, they are able to gain the confidence of manufacturing partners as well as enter the market and gain traction and confidence of customers with whom they are working on signing additional offtake agreements. 

With these partners and offtake agreements Brevel is able to raise debt as well as bring in investors beyond venture capital who are interested in financing the “second, third and fourth of a kind”

“We believe that Brevel’s protein will become a main ingredient in a large variety of plant-based food applications. Especially where soy or pea protein are simply not good enough due to their challenging flavors, off-notes, allergenicity and insufficient functionality. Brevel’s protein solves all of these challenges and can be provided at truly affordable costs and so we believe that the transition tipping point is very near.” 

Bridging the Gap in Foodtech Financing

The question of FOAK financing and offtakes agreements is being heavily discussed in the Climate Tech ecosystem and new tools and players are emerging in the field. 

However, Yonatan believes the foodtech/biotech space is still behind with not enough success stories and financial players who are comfortable with the vertical. 

This week,Yonatan will be in New York at the HackSummit to share his insights on the process, some lessons learnt and inspire others in the Clima Tech ecosystem that the FOAKing gap can be successfully bridged with the right approach.