TurtleTree Labs raises US$32.9m at a valuation of over US$390m

Benjamin Cher

Published Tue, Nov 16, 2021 · 12:49 PM

AGRITECH startup TurtleTree Labs has raised US$32.9 million at a valuation in excess of US$390 million, according to data from Venture Cap Insights (VCI).

Investors in this round of funding include Verso Capital, SHOSHIN8 and Artesian. According to VCI, the post-money valuation of over US$390 million is among the largest in South-east Asia.

The startup, which has offices in Singapore and the US, had raised US$3.2 million in a seed round in Jun 2020 and US$6.2 million in pre-Series A funding in Dec 2020. This brings the total funding raised to US$42.3 million so far.

TurtleTree Labs cultures milk in its labs from animal cells for sustainable food products. The startup can create cow, goat, sheep and camel milk, with plans for dairy products to come from the cultured milk. In Jun 2020, TurtleTree Labs announced that it was ready to commercialise milk created from a blueprint of human milk.

Together in a partnership with biotechnology company Dyadic, the startup aims to develop proteins for culturing milk at high yield and low costs.

"Our early target is to make use of the Dyadic technology to produce milk ingredients. This method has been well accepted by the FDA for milk products from other companies like Perfect Day," said Lin Fengru, TurtleTree Labs founder and chief executive officer.