DouxMatok takes a pleasant journey to grow to be Incredo after raking in $30 million
DouxMatok, a meals expertise firm whose first product is a sugar-based sugar discount resolution known as Incredo Sugar, takes a nod to that and modifications its firm title to Incredo.
Incredo’s expertise binds actual cane or beet sugar with traces of a pure provider that may scale back the quantity of sugar in meals by 30% to 50%. Which means folks can eat much less of it, however nonetheless get the identical impact of style, mouthfeel or texture – and with out altering the components.
We final checked in with DouxMatok in 2017, when the Israel-based firm was creating that expertise. Since then quite a bit has modified.
Ari Melamud took over from Eron Baniel as CEO in 2021. He joined the corporate with a variety of targets, together with getting the expertise to market and beginning one other spherical of fundraising after Incredo’s Sequence B spherical in 2019.
Think about them fulfilled: Incredo Sugar is now commercially out there, and together with the title change, the corporate introduced it had raised $30 million in a Sequence C funding spherical.
The funding was co-led by DSM Venturing and Sienna Enterprise Capital. They joined a bunch that included strategic industrial companion Ferrero, new investor Teseo Capital and present traders Pitango and BlueRed Companions. The corporate has now raised a complete of $60 million.
“Incredo has developed one of the crucial promising dietary improvements we’ve seen – a scrumptious, inexpensive and clean-label product that may scale back the sugar in meals with out components or taste modifications,” mentioned Isabelle Amiel-Azoulai, managing companion at Sienna Enterprise Capital, in a written assertion. “Incredo has what it takes to make Incredo Sugar seem in merchandise around the globe.”
There are at the moment quite a few sugar substitutes available on the market. Nevertheless, they aren’t all created equal, in accordance with Melamud, who famous that the The World Well being Group has launched new tips this month “towards using non-sugar sweeteners to regulate physique weight or scale back the chance of non-communicable ailments” as a result of it doesn’t present long-term advantages.
Well being values apart, one of many largest issues with sugar alternate options is that every one has a special sweetness profile, which frequently modifications the flavour of the meals it’s in, he mentioned.
“Shoppers are very clear of their message to the manufacturers that the style is what they don’t like,” Melamud mentioned. “The second is that they need a clear label. We’re the one resolution that’s really sugar primarily based, which supplies us the advantages of style and clear label.”
Incredo is without doubt one of the few firms creating more healthy variations of sugar alternate options, together with Supplant, MycoTechnology, Sensient, and Joywell Meals, which has been within the business for almost a decade.
Incredo’s recipe testing laboratory. Picture Credit: Incredo
Final 12 months was Incredo’s first industrial 12 months, which included collaborations with Batory Meals and Blommer Chocolate Co. Melamud declined to touch upon income particulars, however did say “we’ve basically achieved our objective” and that there are “aggressive progress plans” for the subsequent two years.
The corporate launched in Europe earlier this 12 months and there are plans to do the identical in Asia later in 2023. Plans additionally name for brand spanking new and higher availability in Europe, Israel and the US, the place Incredo has constructed headquarters in Austin. The North American effort is led by Kelly Thompson, who joined the corporate in 2022 after beforehand holding R&D roles for firms similar to Kraft Meals.
Melamud plans to take a position a lot of the new funding in Incredo’s R&D crew, which works to enhance and launch new variations of its product, and commercialization efforts for Incredo Sugar.
In the meantime, though Incredo is commercially out there, it might take two years or extra for main meals producers to signal on and alter their recipes to incorporate the sugar product. Nevertheless, the corporate is making an attempt to get forward of that by “at the moment executing a whole lot of tasks within the US,” with a few of these large gamers, Melamud mentioned.
“We’ve to do not forget that this can be a sluggish class,” Melamud mentioned. “A few of these tasks will mature this 12 months with bigger quantities subsequent 12 months and even bigger quantities in 2025. We see loads of curiosity out there, which exhibits that the necessity is there.”
