TEL AVIV, ISRAEL — Early-stage cocoa technology company Celleste Bio, Tel Aviv, Israel, has closed a $4.5 million seed financing round to accelerate R&D, infrastructure and technological capabilities to pilot and scale production of its cell-cultured cocoa ingredients.

The round was led by Supply Change Capital, an investor in early-stage, high growth food technology businesses, with participation from Mondelez International’s corporate venture arm SnackFutures Ventures, Consensus Business Group, The Tredlines Group, Barrel Ventures and Regba Agriculture.

“Climate change and conventional farming practices are depleting our rainforests — resulting in unprecedented environmental and financial challenges to grow enough cocoa to meet the needs of a $100 billion — and growing — chocolate industry,” said Michal Beressi Golomb, chief executive officer of Celleste Bio. “This round provides us with the financial and strategic support we need to accelerate product development, scalability and commercial readiness.”

Celleste Bio, founded in 2022 by Hanne Volpin, PhD, co-founder and chief technical officer, Orna Harel, Avishay Levy and Daphna Michaeli, PhD, with support from The Tredlines Group, uses biotechnology, agriculture technology and artificial intelligence (AI) computational models to produce its natural cocoa ingredients without having to harvest cocoa trees, according to the company.

“Climate change is significantly impacting cocoa supplies, with prices reaching four times their historic highs this year, underscoring the urgent need for sustainable solutions,” said Shayna Harris, co-founder and managing partner at Supply Change Capital. “As the chocolate industry grows over 10% annually, the supply-demand gap is widening. We see this as a pivotal moment for advancements in cellular agriculture and are proud to support Celleste as it leads the way in pioneering innovative, sustainable cocoa solutions.”

The company said it replicates ideal growing conditions in a controlled environment to produce consistent cell-cultured cocoa ingredients at scale.

Celleste Bio extracts one to two beans from one pod that may replicate itself, then it grows the beans in a controlled setting with water and nutrients, which is a continuous cycle without needing to open another pod. Through this process the company produces “natural” cocoa butter and powder, according to the company.