The deeptech startup specialising in food biotechnology raises a Pre-Series A Round from 500 Startups

JuiceInnov8, a Bangkok-based deeptech startup in the food biotechnology vertical, has closed a US$500k pre-Series A round led by 500 Startups’ Durians II Fund and TukTuks Fund.

The company said it will use the funding to expand its core scientist and engineering team and help accelerate the development of its platform from pilot to commercial scale.

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JuiceInnov8 seeks to bring forward healthier juice that has less sugar & lower calories. To do so, the company is working with food and beverage manufacturers worldwide to develop a sugar reduction technology platform that uses natural, non-genetically modified microbes and proprietary sugar conversion processes.

With JuiceInnov8’s technology, juices available in the market can have its original juice content and key nutrients but with near zero sugar and calorie content.

“Consumers are increasingly conscious about having better and healthier food & drinks—from less sugar, less fat, less sodium to more nutritious with functional health benefits. That is why we started JuiceInnov8, instead of creating our own’s CPG brand of less sugar juice, we aim to partner with beverage companies globally to help them bring healthier juice to consumers everywhere,” said Sean Chonchayong Trairatkeyoon, JuiceInnov8 co-founder & CEO.

“Our mission is to reduce sugar in at least 30% of juice sold in the market. Also, as juice is a base ingredient to most foods, snacks, confectionary and dairy products, applications of our technology won’t be limited to only beverages,” he added.

Trairatkeyoon further explained that being based in Southeast Asia gave the business an edge. “We have a lower cost of operating and development compared the US or other regions. This allows us to deliver our technology platform to customers in any continent while maintaining cost competitiveness in both development and production in Thailand,” he added.

JuiceInnov8 was founded four years ago and has been recognised for its technology and mission by the likes of Spanish food startup incubator DigEatAll, and Silicon Valley food and agtech accelerator TERRA.

Part of JuiceInnov8’s technology was extracted from a research by Thailand’s top food biotech professor at Food Technology Department at the local Chulalongkorn University. The tech development and scale-up was done in collaboration with the Department Chemical Engineering at Chulalongkorn University.

JuiceInnov8 is spearheaded by a team of 15 scientists & engineers with a background in molecular biology, biomedical/biochemistry, food sciences to mechanical & chemical engineering. The company is set to launch a new category of reduced sugar juice to the market next year.

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Back in August 2018, Plug and Play selected JuiceInnov8 into its Food & Beverage Verticals Cohort 4, making them the first startup from Asia in the program.

Previously, JuiceInnov8 closed a Seed round of US$500K led by Intania Open Innovation Club – a venture fund investing in Chula Engineering alumni-led companies and a former top-level executive of a global beverage brand.
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