Kinish, an alternative protein firm based in Tokyo, has secured ¥120M ($800,000) in seed funding to produce animal-free dairy proteins inside rice grains via molecular farming. Established in early 2023 by CEO Hashizume Hiroya, Kinish blends plant molecular farming with vertical farming to make its next-generation casein.
The funding round was led by Genesia Ventures, Lifetime Ventures, Full Commit Partners, and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and will allow the startup to accelerate R&D for its rice-derived casein and expand into the US.
Modern dairy farming is heavily dependent on limited resources such as large amounts of water and vast tracts of land, and we believe that it will be placed under increasingly severe conditions due to future environmental changes and the reevaluation of water resources due to advances in AI," said Takashi Sogabe, associate at Genesia Ventures.
At the same time, existing plant-based milks "have not shown sufficient improvement in taste and texture, and are one step away from being widely accepted by society", he added. "Kinish has the elemental technology to provide a low-cost alternative milk that faithfully reproduces the functionality of milk, and we are confident that it will become a company that meets the great social needs for environmental and resource issues that will likely become apparent in the future."
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