Alleggra Foods Limited, a Unilever Ventures-backed start-up, has raised £1.6m of second-round funding from Tate & Lyle PLC and follow on funding by Unilever Ventures.
Alleggra is a low cost, low carb, cholesterol-free, higher convenience alternative to conventional hen’s eggs. Founded in 2002, utilising technology developed in Unilever’s food research & development laboratory in the Netherlands, Alleggra has grown into a business offering a whole egg replacer to the food service and food manufacturing industries. Alleggra’s core technology is protected by a series of patents. The company’s plan is ‘to do to eggs what margarine did to butter’. This is a product with global potential and early sales are being made in the UK, with potential expansions in other geographies being reviewed with Tate & Lyle.
Funds will be used to grow the business and to allow Alleggra to reach break even and profitability. Tate & Lyle have acquired a minority stake, with the remainder held by Unilever Ventures and management. Mark Robinson, Head of Investor Relations of Tate & Lyle now joins the board of Alleggra.
Stephen Manley, Chairman of Alleggra Foods said: “We welcome Tate & Lyle as an investor and partner in Alleggra with their expertise in food ingredients and global reach. Alleggra is now well placed and fully funded to expand its business beyond its current base in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.”
Mark Robinson said: “We look forward to partnering with Alleggra in this exciting new investment. Alleggra and Unilever’s R&D teams have done an excellent job in developing this ground-breaking food ingredient and bringing it to market. We look forward to working with them to take Alleggra to the next stage of commercial development and growth. Alleggra is another exciting addition to Tate & Lyle’s value-added food ingredients portfolio.”
John Coombs, MD of Unilever Ventures said: “It has been exciting seeing Alleggra develop from an idea and intellectual property into a fully fledged business with a quality management team growing the business and selling the product. We are delighted to have Tate & Lyle on board as investors and partners in the next stage of growth for Alleggra.” ENDS
Tate & Lyle PLC
Tate & Lyle is a world leader in renewable ingredients. Its core competence is to take corn, wheat or sugar, and add value to these raw materials through technology. As a result of continuous innovation it offers an ever-wider product portfolio of versatile and functional ingredients. These products include Cereal Sweeteners, Starches, Sugars, Citric Acid and SPLENDA® Sucralose. Tate & Lyle products have wide applications in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, paper, packaging and building industries. With headquarters in London, Tate & Lyle operates more than 41 plants and 20 additional production facilities in 28 countries, almost all in Europe and the Americas. It employs 6,700 people in its subsidiaries with a further 4,800 employed in joint ventures. Sales in the year to 31 March 2004 totalled £3,167 million. More details are available on this website
www.tateandlyle.com.
Further information about Tate & Lyle can be accessed from
www.tateandlyle.com
SPLENDA® is a trademark of McNeil Nutritionals, LLC
Alleggra Foods Limited
Alleggra is the world’s best tasting, full-function, whole egg replacement. It tastes like egg, gives the same texture and functionality as egg, but is based on soy. It is a healthy alternative to egg, with sufficient soy protein to justify a “cholesterol-lowering” claim. It has food safety, ambient storage, long shelf-life, and re-heating attributes that make it a very convenient product for kitchens and food manufacturing.
Alleggra is being sold to the food manufacturing and food service industries, where it will be used to replace egg powder and pasteurised liquid egg.
Alleggra was developed in Unilever’s food R&D laboratory (Vlaardingen NL), by Janos Bodor, one of Unilever’s most prolific inventors. Janos has been responsible for over 100 Unilever patents, one of which has accounted for over €2.7bn in sales. The formulation and production methods are patent protected, with 3 patents and further development underway.
For Alleggra, contact: Gavin Heys
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8481 0486
Email: gavin.heys@alleggra.com
Unilever Ventures
Unilever Ventures is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs create successful companies. We provide venture capital funding and management skills to start-up and early stage companies. Our focus is twofold: on consumer-facing businesses in Europe where we can draw upon Unilever’s expertise in Food and Home & Personal Care products and services in order to create value in our portfolio companies; and on building and spinning out businesses from Unilever’s research labs.
Its funding amounts to some €66 million to be invested in early stage business ideas developing to and beyond, "proof of concept". Investment in any individual business is expected to range between €200,000 and €3 million over the life of the investment.
Further information about Unilever Ventures can be accessed from www.unileverventures.com
For Unilever Ventures, contact:
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7321 6199
Email: kimberly.oconnor@unilever.com
