Clean Food Group, a UK biotech company that makes oils and fats using fermentation rather than conventional farming, has raised £4.5 million to complete the scale-up of its production facility in Knowsley, Liverpool. The round was announced at in-cosmetics Global in Paris, the company's first appearance at the event. CEO Alex Neves co-founded the business alongside Professor Chris Chuck, a bioprocess engineering professor at the University of Bath.
Ingredient supply chains have come under growing pressure in recent years. Palm oil, soybean oil, and other crop-based oils are tied to deforestation concerns, price volatility, and the kind of trade disruptions that have become harder to predict. The global sustainable food market was valued at USD 315 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 524 billion by 2032, at a CAGR of 6.7%. The fermentation technology underpinning CFG's approach sits within an even faster-growing segment: the precision fermentation market, which covers ingredients produced using engineered microbes, was valued at USD 4.05 billion in 2024 and is forecast to reach USD 151 billion by 2034, at a CAGR of 43.6%.
The £4.5 million round was led by Clean Growth Fund and New Agrarian, both focused on sustainable food and industrial biotechnology. Clean Food Group also secured a £700,000 grant from Innovate UK, which provides capital without diluting existing shareholders.
Most cooking oils and ingredient fats come from crops grown at large scale, often in regions where production puts pressure on forests and local ecosystems. Prices are tied to harvests, weather, and trade policy. Clean Food Group takes a different approach: it uses food waste as a starting material, feeds it to engineered yeast strains in industrial tanks, and collects the oils and fats those microbes produce.
The company's CleanOil™ 25 product received regulatory approval for use in cosmetics in the UK, US, and Europe in 2025, making it one of the first fermentation-derived oils to clear that bar in all three major markets. Jim Mellon, Chairman and Founder of New Agrarian, described why the model appealed to him as an investor:
"Supply chain fragility is one of the defining risks of our time. War, climate volatility, and trade disputes are presenting a huge challenge to manufacturers; the ingredients we assumed would always be available are no longer guaranteed. Clean Food Group is addressing this problem head-on, using scalable science and technology to build genuine resilience and sustainability into the way we produce and source key ingredients used in everything from food to cosmetics. For me, this sits at a rare intersection: a compelling investment case and a genuine solution to one of the most pressing challenges of our generation." — Jim Mellon, Chairman and Founder of New Agrarian.
Most of the new capital will go toward completing the ramp-up of the Knowsley site, a one-million-litre fermentation facility in Liverpool that the company acquired in September 2025. Getting that site fully operational is the main near-term goal, and the company says commercial agreements with food and ingredients manufacturers are already in place. CFO and co-founder Tom Ellen commented:
"The capital raised will enable the Company to bring on stream the world's largest yeast-derived oils and fats facility and to deliver on our long-term vision for sustainable food manufacturing." — Tom Ellen, CFO of Clean Food Group.
The funding also supports the broader rollout of CLEAN Oil™ and CLEAN Fat™ across food, cosmetics, and pet nutrition. CFG says its process has been validated at commercial scale, with one production run yielding two tons of oil from a single fermentation cycle. That figure matters because fermentation-based ingredients have historically struggled to prove they can work at the volumes that large manufacturers need.
Clean Food Group was founded in 2022, but the technology it is built on took roughly eight years to develop. Professor Chris Chuck created the CLEAN OilCell™ platform during his time at the University of Bath, where he holds a chair in Bioprocess Engineering. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in the field and attracted more than £23 million in research funding over the course of his academic career.
The two core products, CLEAN Oil™ and CLEAN Fat™, are intended as direct substitutes for conventional agricultural oils. They are made from food waste using yeast-based fermentation and are priced to match their agricultural equivalents. That price parity is significant: many sustainable alternatives cost more than what they replace, which limits how widely they get adopted. CFG also claims its production process generates over 95% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil production.
Alex Neves, the CEO, and Tom Ellen, the CFO, both worked previously at EMMAC Life Sciences, a European medical cannabis company that was acquired by Curaleaf in 2021. Ellen helped raise more than $50 million at EMMAC and oversaw M&A activity during its growth phase. That background in scaling regulated businesses shapes how the team approaches both commercial partnerships and investor relations.
Clean Growth Fund led the round alongside New Agrarian. Clean Growth Fund has backed CFG in previous rounds; New Agrarian is a new addition to the cap table. The Innovate UK grant of £700,000 sits alongside the equity funding, giving the company non-dilutive capital to draw on as it completes the Knowsley build-out.
SEED Innovations remains an institutional backer, and Döhler Group, a large ingredient manufacturer, holds both an investment stake and a commercial partnership with CFG. Rodrigo Hortega de Velasco, Managing Partner at Döhler Ventures, the investment arm of Döhler Group, said:
"We are pleased to support Clean Food Group in this latest funding round and proud to have been part of the Company's scale-up journey to date. CFG has consistently demonstrated both the strength of its technology and the commercial potential of its sustainable oils and fats platform. The acquisition of the Knowsley facility marks a significant milestone, enabling production at a scale that brings these innovative products closer to widespread commercial reality. We look forward to continuing our collaboration as CFG advances towards full-scale market deployment." — Rodrigo Hortega de Velasco, Managing Partner, Döhler Ventures.
Döhler's position as both investor and commercial partner is worth noting. A major ingredient supplier choosing to back a startup financially while also working with it commercially suggests a level of confidence in the underlying technology that goes beyond a financial bet.
