September 19, 2017

Israel-based DouxMatok, a developer of flavor delivery technologies, announced the successful raising of $8.1 million led by Israel’s largest venture capital fund, Pitango, and including existing shareholders, Gil Horsky, and FoodLab Capital.

GAI News first brought you news of DouxMatok in May 2015, when the company announced it was seeking $4 million in funding, and looking to partner with investors or players in the sugar industry interested in taking their technology to market.

DouxMatok is transforming how sugar is tasted and perceived by humans, and how it is utilized by the food industry. Through a laboratory process that requires no artificial chemicals and is fully compliant with FDA and EU regulations, DuoxMatok can modify how sugar molecules interact with taste receptors on the tongue.

The physical system through which humans taste food is inefficient, with many sugar molecules moving through the mouth without registering with taste receptors – meaning humans eat sweet foods without tasting their full sweetness, requiring food companies to add more sugar than is needed to achieve a certain taste.

DouxMatok’s technology coats each sugar molecule onto organic ‘carriers’ using a natural mineral that transports each sugar molecule to a person’s taste receptors, significantly reducing the amount of sugar needed to gain the same taste profile. Through maximizing the efficiency of tasting sugar, DouxMatok’s technology allows consumers to perceive more sweetness for a longer period of time, thereby reducing sugar content in foods by up to 40 percent without affecting their taste.

“The potential of DouxMatok’s technology is immense,” said Ittai Harel, managing general partner at Pitango. “Having been tested independently by [third] party evaluators, as well as by major food manufacturers, the company has proven its ability to achieve desired sweetness level with significantly reduced sugar content. Major food manufacturers are actively seeking healthy viable alternatives to the high levels of added sugar currently in use and we are confident DouxMatok will become an enabler and trusted partner to the industry, and for consumers, in this mission.”

The company plans to use the capital from this round to fund the commercialization of its sugar reduction technology by the end of 2018.

“This round of financing facilitates speeding up our scale-up and commercialization. We hope that DouxMatok will become a trusted leading brand in the efforts to reduce sugar consumption to healthier levels, so we can continue to enjoy the foods we love,” said Eran Baniel, CEO and co-founder, DouxMatok.

The Ides of Sugar

Driven by the trend toward a more healthy lifestyle and diet, consumers have recently targeted sugar as the next ingredient to reduce or eliminate from their food choices. A poll conducted on January 15, 2016 by Reuters/Ipsos found that 58 percent of adults surveyed responded that they attempted to reduce the sugar content in their diet within the past 30 days – reflecting a higher percentage compared to the percent of consumers trying to reduce calories, or fat, salt, cholesterol, or carbohydrates.

The drive to cut sugar has also extended beyond the consumer into the regulatory sphere – demonstrating that the reduction of sugar is being addressed as more than a consumer fad, but rather as a health issue that needs to be addressed for the long-term.

In January 2016 the U.S. government advised that Americans should limit the amount of added sugar in their diet to less than 10 percent of their total caloric intake – marking the first recommendation of a direct limitation by the government. And by July 2018, all food companies will be required to note amounts of added sugars on their labels.

These trends are pointing toward the nascent investment opportunity in sugar reduction technologies, resulting in the announcement of larger and follow-on funding rounds.

Earlier this month, GAI News reported that Colorado-based food tech startup MycoTechnology had raised a $35 million  Series B, co-led by S2G, Bunge Ventures, and Emerson Collective. Other investors included in the round are Health for Life Capital; Seventure Partners; Middleland Capital; Tao Capital Partners; Kellogg’s venture fund, Eighteen94 Capital; Continental Grain; GreatPoint Ventures; Closed Loop Capital; and Windy City LLC.

Founded in 2013 Dr. Brooks Kelly, Jim Langan, Peter Lubar, and Alan Hahn, MycoTechnology has pioneered the development of a variety of new food processing systems using mushroom roots (mycelium), including the critical application of removing the bitter aftertaste of stevia – something that has been a challenge to food companies in their quest to cut sugar content.

In conjunction with the startup’s Series A, the company released Clear Taste – a newly released natural, GMO-free, chemical-free ingredient solution that uses extracts found in mushrooms to even out the taste profile of stevia. And in January 2016, MycoTechnology partnered with GLG Life Tech Corporation (GLG), a leading commercial developer of zero-calorie natural sweeteners, to incorporate Clear Taste technology to improve the taste of stevia and monk fruit as alternative sweeteners.

DouxMatok’s technology strikes to the core of these building consumer demands and regulatory shifts.

“The obesity and diabetes epidemics and their broader societal consequences are shifting the way consumers and policy-makers are thinking about food,” said Gil Horsky. “They are expecting food companies to be part of the solution, by reducing the amount of sugar in their products. DouxMatok enables food manufacturers for the first time to provide their consumers with the exact same taste they know and love, but with significantly lower sugar content – that is game-changing for the industry.”

-Lynda Kiernan