Elo Life Systems, a food and ingredient company based in Durham, NC, has raised $20.5 million in Series A2 funding. This brings the total amount raised by the company to $45 million. The funding round was led by DCVC Bio and Novo Holdings, with participation from Hanwha Next Generation Opportunity Fund, AccelR8, and Alexandria Venture Investments. Elo Life Systems plans to use the funds to expand its pipeline of ingredients and to protect staple crops, such as bananas, from disease and climate change.
Elo Life Systems uses a molecular farming platform to produce sought-after ingredients that are difficult to harvest from natural sources and cannot be synthesized artificially. The company grows crops as biofactories for these ingredients, allowing for the local, commercial-scale production of them while reducing cost and environmental impact.
One of Elo Life Systems’ products is a natural sweetener derived from monk fruit, which is sweeter than sugar but has no calories. This sweetener, set to launch in 2026, can be used in a variety of food and beverage products to reduce the need for sugar and artificial sweeteners while providing added nutrition. The company is also exploring the production of other ingredients, such as novel proteins, natural preservatives, and high-value flavors and bio-actives.
