SAN DIEGO – The jury may still be out on which came first, the chicken or the egg, but that is one question Onego Bio doesn’t have to concern itself with.
The Finland-based company for nearly two years has raised more than $70 million in funding and has been building a more resilient egg industry with a product that needs no chickens.
Now Onego Bio has expanded its commercial footprint to San Diego.
Onego raised a $40 million Series A raise that closed in April and now plans to open a 4,500-square foot space later this month in San Diego for its North American operations hub.
The San Diego site in Sorrento Valley will have a kitchen lab area where it will work with food companies on transitioning away from eggs and on to Onego’s fungi-based ingredient called Bioalbumen.
Two-year-old startup Onego has been perfecting and repurposing a well-established fungal fermentation technology from the enzyme industry for food protein production of Bioalbumen.
Co-founder and CEO
Onego Bio
Bioalbumen mimics all of an egg’s properties and offers the same protein-packed punch, functional and nutritional qualities, and characteristics of eggs without the use of any animal ingredients.
It is bioidentical to the major protein in a chicken’s egg white, ovalbumin, Onego co-founder and CEO Maija Itkonen said.
San Diego’s Border Pull
Itkonen said the company had long set its sights on greater distribution, and the United States was first in line for expansion.
Onego is already working with some large food companies doing business in Mexico, and Itkonen said San Diego’s geographical location made it a perfect fit.
The company initially earlier this year worked out of a temporary spot in Palo Alto but has put down roots with an office in San Diego, which will officially open in late September.
Onego also picked San Diego in part because of its dedicated hub of environmentally minded biotech companies, said CFO Tom Ferguson.
Ferguson said the company has about 40 employees and that five are going to be based in San Diego where there will be an application lab, quality lab and sales offices.
“We will have all of these commercial functions where customers can come, investors can come and take a look at our product and see what we’re doing,” he said.
CFO
Onego Bio
Onego has been steadily increasing its collaborations with major global food companies, with more than a dozen currently in its pipeline, and is staged to disrupt the $330 billion egg market, looking to create system level change and accelerating what company leaders call “the green transition.”
Itkonen said the company will be working with brands on their baked products that have traditionally been using eggs and partnering with their research and development arms to help in product process.
“San Diego is like a test kitchen for us, working with companies to help them formulate their products with our product as the egg replacement ingredient,” she said. “We’re re-creating some really cool iconic recipes. We’re just traying to make it easier for the manufacturers, and making it better for everybody, with about a 90% to 95% lower environmental footprint.”
Eggs in Flux
Eggs have long been an essential part of food businesses, but the egg market is constantly fluctuating because of health issues like avian flu and increased demand for cage-free chickens.
Manufacturers have been challenged to find a viable replacement with a consistent, reliable, and safe supply of high-quality protein at an accessible price, Itkonen said.
Nutritionally complete, Bioalbumen contains all essential amino acids, has the highest possible protein digestibility score and delivers more than 90 grams of protein per 100 grams.
The company says that the product offers a clean, neutral flavor and superior functional properties and say it is an ideal industrial ingredient for replacing eggs and enhancing the texture, taste and performance of a wide range of applications across the food industry.
“Egg protein remains one of nature’s most perfect foods; this single ingredient supplies more than 20 different functional benefits from aeration to emulsification and gelation,” Itkonen said. “While it may sound scientific, the value is in our mouths every day with velvety cake structures, silky-smooth mayonnaises, crispy nugget batterings or those chewy-fluffy nougat fillings, just to mention few.”
San Di-Egg-o’s Turn with Onego
Halle Redfearn is head of product development for Onego and will be based in San Diego.
Redfearn works on recipe formulations and quality control. She said she will be tasked with leading collaborative efforts with large food manufacturers to create optimal products using Bioalbumen as a direct egg replacement.
Head of Product Development
Onego Bio
“From the food science side of things, our goal for Onego Bio in the USA is to demonstrate egg replacement with Bioalbumen in a wide range of food applications, from pastas, cookies, cakes and meringues to meat analogues, dips and spreads, and ready-to-eat meals and drinks,” she said. “Our lab will be a resource center for our food manufacturing partners, developing new recipe formulations, optimizing product functionality and monitoring quality control.”
Redfearn said Onego’s office is surrounded by innovative industry, and, from a technical standpoint, the resources have already been astounding.
“San Diego is also a progressive city, and it is motivating to see a community dedicated to lowering their environmental footprint through improvements in energy efficiency, transportation and the food system,” she said. “It is easy to be inspired here.”
Redfearn said the San Diego EDC and trade organizations including Biocom and California Life Sciences have been a source of support.
One of Nordic’s Largest Funding Rounds
The $40 million round was led by NordicNinja, a Japanese-Nordic VC investing in promising companies within sustainability and digital society. The Series A round also includes a $10 million non-dilutive funding from Business Finland, a public organization under the Finnish government that supports innovation to accelerate systemic change to help solve major global challenges.
The raise also included equity investments from Tesi and EIT Food, as well as more from existing investors Agronomics, Maki.vc, Holdix and Turret, plus other strategic partners.
Onego’s Series A funding was one of the largest A rounds in the Nordics and brought the company’s total funding to $71 million.
Onego Bio was founded in 2022 as a spinoff from VTT (Technical Research Center of Finland) by alternative protein pioneer Itkonen and precision fermentation trailblazer Christopher Landowski.
Itkonen said that Onego is on-track to file for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration GRAS (Generallv Recognized as Safe) status for Bioalbumen this year, with a required “no questions letter” expected from the FDA next year.
Onego was selected as the Winner of Fast Company’s 2023 World Changing Ideas awards.
Onego Bio
FOUNDED: 2022
CEO: Maija Itkonen
CO-FOUNDER: Christopher Landowski
HEADQUARTERS: Helsinki and San Diego
BUSINESS: Food biotech industry, specifically focusing on alternative proteins & sustainable food production
FUNDING: $71 million
EMPLOYEES: 30 in Helsinki, 5 in San Diego
WEBSITE: onego.bio
CONTACT: 650-613-3876
SOCIAL IMPACT: Onego Bio is pioneering a more sustainable food system with its nature-equivalent egg protein, which has the potential to reduce the environmental impact of egg production by about 90%.
NOTABLE: Onego Bio is working with more than two dozen major food companies to incorporate its Bioalbumen into a wide range of products.
