New Zealand’s Fonterra Backs Brewed Dairy with Vivici US Debut

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Fonterra, New Zealand’s dairy colossus and global cream-of-the-crop exporter, has just made its most serious move yet into the future of milk, without the cow. Its startup investment Vivici, a precision fermentation outfit co-founded with Dutch dsm-firmenich, has launched into the US market, bringing with it a cow-free version of whey protein looking, functioning, and tasting just like the original - except it’s brewed.

Source: Vivici - Young woman drinking clear protein based non-dairy whey drink from Vivici

Vivici’s debut product, Vivitein, is a beta-lactoglobulin made through precision fermentation, now self-GRAS certified in the US. Think clear protein drinks, protein-fortified snacks, and supplement powders and all built without the dairy herd and without the methane.

In a world increasingly intolerant of animal-based inefficiencies, this is big. Even bigger when you realise this is Fonterra’s only formal leap into the alt-dairy world. A hedge? A rethink? Or a quiet signal that it knows what’s coming?

In February, Vivici banked €32.5 million in Series A funding from Dutch pension giant APG, Invest-NL, and existing backers including Fonterra itself. That money’s already earmarked for scaling up production and launching a second molecule, lactoferrin, by year’s end. Expect Fonterra’s research and commercial nous to be behind the curtain as the science moves from petri dish to protein aisle.

But don’t confuse this with virtue-signalling. The move to precision fermentation isn’t just about emissions, it’s about access, shelf life, control, and price. According to Vivici. its fermentation protein uses 86% less water, emits 68% fewer greenhouse gases, and takes 90% less out of the soil than conventional dairy. For a company like Fonterra, often under scrutiny for its climate footprint, those numbers speak louder than a marketing campaign.

Fonterra may never walk away from the udder entirely, but its investment in Vivici shows it’s not deaf to the drumbeat of change. This isn’t just another startup. It’s a protein prototype of the post-cow world, backed by the very people who built their empire on milk.

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