Vivici, a Dutch scale-up headquartered in the Biotech Campus Delft and member of EIC Scaling Club’s Agri & Food Tech market group, is producing dairy proteins through precision fermentation. With its innovative approach rooted in 18 years of development, Vivici is dedicated to creating alternative proteins that are both sustainable and ethical.  

We caught up with Stephan van Sin Fiet, CEO of Vivici, at the Scale100 Forum in October to learn more about the company’s and its team’s journey – from its raison d’être and achievements to participation in the EIC Scaling Club and future ambitions. 

You can also listen to the interview recording here (or watch the video below):

Feeding the world – sustainably and ethically

The world faces a rapidly increasing demand for protein. "We’re going to have a doubling demand of protein in the future. But we can’t sustainably feed the world by doubling the number of cows and pigs and chickens," explains Stephan. 

"We need alternative proteins. So, we’ve found a way to make real animal protein without the animal, using a technology similar to beer brewing and making these proteins in a sustainable and affordable way."

Vivici has successfully launched its first product, a whey protein called beta-lactoglobulin (BLG), which boasts exceptional functionality and nutritional value. The company is currently marketing BLG in the US and is actively pursuing regulatory approvals in Europe and Asia. 
 

A team of industry veterans

What sets Vivici apart is its seasoned leadership team. "Our leadership is not the usual 25-year-old founder crew. We have been in the industry 20-30 years – gray hair, no hair, let’s not go there," Stephan laughs. This wealth of experience spans industrial biotech, enabling the company to master the technologies required for building a robust supply chain, and the protein ingredients themselves. This, in turn, allows the team to understand what exactly customers need when they are looking for protein ingredients, facilitating meaningful customer interactions around functionality, nutrition, and safety. "Having the track record in the team really helps," he adds.

The technology behind Vivici's products has been in development for approximately four years, building on 18 years of prior research. "In the last 18 months, we’ve taken this from the lab to the market, which is pretty fast," Stephan notes. The company continues to optimize its technology, recognizing the vast potential for growth.

Vivici's journey has been marked by significant milestones, including scaling a lab-scale process to full industrial manufacturing, transitioning from technical-grade to food-grade production, securing regulatory approval in the US, building a strong customer pipeline, and raising substantial seed capital. 

In February, the company raised a Series A round totalling €32.5 million. This funding will be crucial for scaling the commercial team, expanding manufacturing capabilities, and engaging with a broader customer base.

Navigating consumer acceptance

One of the biggest challenges Vivici faces is building consumer acceptance for its novel ingredient. "Bringing a new ingredient to market means that you have to communicate to market," Stephan explains. 

"Speaking to the market about what this ingredient is, why is it more sustainable, why is it more ethical, why is it a great ingredient to work with – that’s really the journey that we’re still on." 

He emphasizes that while many peer companies struggle with technological hurdles, Vivici has largely overcome these, focusing instead on engaging consumers.

Vivici’s strategy involves highlighting the benefits that resonate with consumers, such as nutritional value, sustainability, and functionality, rather than dwelling on the technical details of the production process. "Talk about what the ingredient can do for the consumer, its nutritional value, its sustainability, its functionality. What do I get out of it as a consumer if I pick up a product with this ingredient out of the shelf in the supermarket?" Stephan advises.

EIC Scaling Club – a plethora of benefits

Vivici's participation in the EIC Scaling Club is a testament to its ambition and growth potential. 

"We’re thrilled to be part of the EIC Scaling Club. Obviously, the EIC Scaling Club offers many benefits. We hope that we’ll build a great network, meet great mentors with whom we can brainstorm on various challenges that Vivici is facing, and, of course, connect with investors."

Having secured funding, Stephan and Vivici are ready to focus on the next stage. "We’ll use that to bring the ingredient to the market, to scale the commercial team, to scale the manufacturing, to go out there, interact with lots of customers and show them that they really don’t have to make compromises when it comes to protein," Stephan explains. 

Watch the full interview with Stephan van Sin Fiet below, or visit our YouTube channel to explore our other videos:

About the EIC Scaling Club

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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