Nesta Impact Investments backs tech ventures working in areas aligned with Nesta’s 2030 impact goals.  Nesta’s healthy life mission looks to increase the number of healthy years lived by all, with an initial focus on tackling obesity. Nesta is delighted to announce our investment in Nandi Proteins, a food science innovator that helps food producers that are under pressure to tackle social, health and environmental concerns. Nesta has backed Nandi Proteins to commercialise novel ingredients it has developed to reduce fat in popular foods, such as sausages and burgers, as well as improve vegan options. Nesta led this investment alongside Scottish Enterprise. 

Nandi Proteins partners with protein producers to enhance the functionality of their ingredients and deliver improved products for their customers. The team is actively working on improving the functionality of whey protein, collagen and a growing number of plant proteins. They have developed ingredients to replace emulsifiers, remove fat and replace egg white. 

With the UK Parliament’s briefing showing 28 % of people in the UK are classified as obese and a further 36 % as overweight, there is a massive need for access to healthier foods and ‘cleaner’ ingredients. Nandi has developed an innovative technique for treating proteins so that they become easier to use in food manufacturing, and importantly result in much healthier food products while maintaining full flavours. We are excited by Nandi’s potential to offer a healthier set of choices for consumers. For example, Nandi’s ingredients help to make low-fat sausages with the flavour and succulence of average ‘full-fat’ sausage.  

Vegan food is widely thought to be good for our health, better for weight-related issues and good for the planet. Nandi’s range can help a number of products become fully vegan-friendly.

Nesta Impact Investments provides financial, knowledge and network capital to innovative tech ventures that are changing the world for good. We look to back businesses in edtech, foodtech, healthtech, climate tech, the future of work and productivity, that are closely aligned to Nesta’s mission impact goals:

• A sustainable future: to accelerate the decarbonisation of UK households and raise productivity in ways that advance the transition to net zero. Our focus at the moment is decarbonising households and small-to-medium enterprises.
• A healthy life: to increase the average number of healthy years lived in the UK, while narrowing health inequalities. Our focus at the moment is on reducing obesity. This includes new food tech, novel ingredients, healthy brands and helping people access healthy foods, as well as relevant behavioural and health tech.
• A fairer start: to narrow the education outcome gap between children growing up in disadvantage and the national average. We look for solutions that deliver high-quality, affordable provision and workforce development. We are also looking at financial inclusion solutions which can reduce stress on families who can then better support the home learning environment.