Arborea supplies net-zero protein and other highly functional ingredients for the food industry so customers can enjoy healthy and nutritious food. “Food without the footprint” is the slogan of this Portuguese scale-up, member of our Agri & Food Tech group.
We met Julian Melchiorri, founder and CEO of Arborea, during the Scale 100 Forum in Athens and asked him about Arborea's path to success, the challenges they've overcome, and the ways in which their ingenious technology nurtures our shared future.
Read the article below or listen to the interview here:
Arborea’s work directly contributes to a more sustainable future for all mankind. The company supplies net-zero nature-positive protein and other functional ingredients to the food industry to help make healthy and sustainable food the primary choice for everyone. Julian Melchiorri paints a striking vision:
"Our protein is so land-efficient that we could meet global protein needs of 2050 in just an area the size of the New York metropolitan area. Imagine how much land we could return to nature."
The company’s secret sauce is its Biosolar Leaf™ technology, which virtually reinvents how photosynthetic microorganisms – or microscopic plants – are grown today. Julian explains: “We convert solar energy and carbon dioxide into protein and other functional ingredients. This technology is extremely land-efficient – it doesn't need any land to grow.” Arborea’s technology generates 150 times more protein than soy for the same surface area, is extremely water efficient, and carbon neutral.
Julian is a multi-disciplinary entrepreneur with a background in engineering and innovation. His two masters in Innovation Design Engineering and studies at the Biomedical Engineering Department of Tufts University in Boston make him well-versed in developing the different aspects of his product.
Essentially, what Arborea does is grow very tiny plants for the good of humanity. Julian shares how he came up with this ingenious idea: “Before founding Arborea, I came up with an invention. It was the world's first artificial leaf made with only biological materials. This prototype was exciting, but I wasn’t sure about pursuing that technology. And then I came up with a new version about harnessing microscopic plants, which evolved naturally into this new technology [that’s at the heart of Arborea].”
Julian explains that he founded Arborea with a strong vision of harnessing photosynthesis in a new, more versatile way – perhaps even more productive and more efficient than larger plants.
“We strongly believe that if you want to feed the world through the centuries to come, you need to find a solution that fits within the many biological systems of our planet, which, unfortunately, are finite resources.”
Arborea's innovative process leverages readily available resources: carbon dioxide, atmospheric pressure, and sunlight. With minimal resource consumption, this process efficiently converts these inputs into protein.
Arborea had raised approximately $20 million (by October 2024), comprising both grants and venture capital. The company launched a new Series A funding round in January 2025, aiming to achieve profitability. Arborea is also an EIC beneficiary, having received support from the European Innovation Council.
While Arborea is currently in a scale-up and initial commercialization phase, the company is already collaborating with major corporations worldwide. These companies are enthusiastically adopting Arborea's ingredients due to their highly sought-after characteristics: affordability, sustainability, carbon neutrality, and scalability. These qualities are particularly crucial for protein production.
"We are most proud of our collaborations with the world's largest food corporations. These partnerships allow us to develop and fine-tune our ingredients to meet their specific needs, helping us get into the market faster."
That said, Julian admits that scaling fast is a challenge – especially when doing it in a way that maintains the culture and the efficiency of a smaller team. To support its path to scaling, Arborea has joined the EIC Scaling Club. Julian tells us that the Arborea team was very excited to become part of it: “We're most eager to connect with a diverse range of experts, from fellow startups to corporate partners, mentors, and investors. You can really feel the excitement and collaborative spirit within the European innovation ecosystem."
Watch the video interview with Julian Melchiorri here (or visit our YouTube channel for more videos):
The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.
The top 120+ European deep tech companies will be carefully selected from a pool of high-growth scale-ups that have benefitted from EIC financial schemes, other European and national innovation programmes, and beyond.
The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.
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