This article is part of a blog series introducing the startup teams of the EIT Food Accelerator Network Helsinki 2024 programme.
Why do sunflowers follow the sun? Because it nourishes them. For this reason, we follow the sunflowers. Because they contain a fantastically nourishing protein, the champion of the plant-based world. If we manage to produce it efficiently and sustainably, sunflower protein will be the answer to the shortage of proteins in the face of climate and population needs.
- Complete amino acid profile
- Non-allergenic
- Functional
- Clean
- Neutral organoleptics
- Competitive price
These are the major features of ExSeed’s sunflower protein isolate. It is a feel-good and do-good protein, like the sunflower fields you see on your early-morning car trip to the seaside. These features have been the wet dream of many producers of plant-based foods seeking to diversify to more wholesome alternatives to soy and pea. To arrive at such a protein is solely possible due to our proprietary tech, more on which below.
Circular and efficient production
To be circular and efficient, we start with sunflower press cake as our input. Sunflower press cake is the residue of oil production. It is also a heavily underutilized side stream, being mostly sold as animal feed. In the EU alone, in 2022, more than 6 million tons of press cake were produced. This suggests some potential for alternative proteins.
Extracting the protein from the press cake while preserving its profile, features, and functionality has been the real challenge with sunflower isolate. For some decades, both science and industry have struggled with getting all of it right. Generally speaking, attempts at producing sunflower isolate from sunflower press cake face a trilemma—they have to sacrifice either yield, quality, or functionality of the isolate. This is where ExSeed comes in.
Our technology was initially developed to yield grape protein from grape seeds. Little did we know back then that some of the processes we designed would be able to solve existing challenges with sunflower protein extraction. Fast forward a year and by 2022 we had already zeroed in on developing a new approach to manufacturing sunflower isolate.
ExSeed’s three-layer technology is a unique and proprietary solution. It shines in its simplicity, upgrading existing approaches to protein extraction; and also in its smart combination of various processes, boosting their efficacies while cancelling out drawbacks. This results in a patentable food-grade technology that delivers significant yields of pure and functional sunflower protein isolate, a technology that also deals with familiar issues such as denaturation, polyphenols, etc. Last but not least, the third layer of ExSeed’s solution applies enzymatic techniques to generate protein-enriched animal feed, thus rendering our process waste-free.
Commercial prospects
With this technology, we want to make commercial sunflower protein isolate for a global market that urgently needs good and easily accessible plant-based proteins. While soy and pea are certainly here to stay due to their availability, price and ease of handling, we see a growing demand for alternatives. And by this, we do not envisage niche, hard-to-come-by, highly regulated, and expensive proteins. On the contrary, a great candidate is right under our nose and we are working to bring it to our mouths. Sunflower isolate is a great alternative because it is nutritionally complete, non-allergic, functional, and clean, and can come at a reasonable price. This combination of assets has not been achieved by any alternative protein yet.
Sunflower isolate’s rich profile lends it wide-ranging applications across the plant-based foods and supplement markets. From dairy and meat to fish and confectionery; to drinks, supplements, and fitness foods – sunflower isolate can fit in universally. For each of those applications we are already doing some trials and tests with interested companies in the sector.
Scaling up
True, we are a little constrained by the small scale we operate at, viz. a lab that churns out a few kilos monthly. With such a small output, we have to carefully prioritize when sending out samples. And unfortunately we cannot answer calls for larger volumes for second-stage sampling and testing. This is why we are mid-way through our pre-seed round. The financing would help us go to a small pilot scale, producing about 500 kg isolate monthly.
Nevertheless, we’ve had excellent functional fit and sample feedback and have a considerable waiting list. We are speaking to manufacturers of plant-based foods and supplements big and small, and in our register of interest you could see some of the largest corporates and most star-studded start-ups around today. Oh, yes, we are a B2B supplier, but you gathered that already, didn’t you?
Recognitions and future plans
As we are writing this article in the sweltering heat of summer in Southern Europe, pleased are we to say that ExSeed has been announced among the winners of the Ready2Scale programme and grant. This comes in the midst of our participation in the EIT Food Accelerator (Helsinki hub), another fine scheme, and the organization behind it, VTT, too. The EIT FAN is a chance to accelerate our technology, meet like-minded start-ups and potentially commence partnerships and collaborations with keynote corporations in our sphere. All of these being opportunities we would most welcome.
Going forward we seek to deepen and broaden our production capabilities and also our market and product fit. By the first we mean to scale to a small pilot, the next step in our industrialization map, and further streamline our processes. By the second we seek to engage ever more companies to test and sample our product, confirming our already strong hypothesis that sunflower protein isolate has a bright future.
If you want to meet us in person, we will attend the EIT Food Summit in Rome in October and also Slush in Helsinki in November. If there isn’t sun, we will bring sunflowers.
Written by Boyan Zahariev, CEO at ExSeed
Follow ExSeed’s journey on LinkedIn, and learn more about EIT FAN programmes here.
