Our Investment in Alga Bio
As a child, each morning I would bolt from my bed to the breakfast table to ensure that my brothers didn’t finish the last milk carton.
The reward: basking in spoonfuls of exquisite Cocoa Puffs bathed in delicious milk.
But my childhood pleasure became an adult predicament when I learned that the cows producing my milk burp inordinate amounts of methane. More importantly, I understood that the scope of enteric emissions goes far beyond just milk: we raise over a billion ruminants around the globe to produce beef, leather, dairy, and wool.
Those cool Allbirds, swanky leather jacket, delicious Mozzarella cheese, and that juicy filet mignon? There is an environmental cost to producing each of them. Especially in the currency of methane.
The problem is that methane’s global warming potential is 84x that of carbon dioxide; it is responsible for 25% of current warming. Ruminants alone are responsible for 10% of global emissions – a staggering amount.
I’ve tried to substitute my cow milk consumption with oat milk, almond milk, cashew milk, soy milk, and just about every alternative out there. But I never wake up in the morning excited for a ‘meh’ substitute, so I never stick with them. And while I’m excited about lab-based products, those solutions remain too far away to impact our emissions at scale today.
Feed additives have emerged as a leading contender in the race to eliminate enteric emissions because they are safe, effective, and merge with existing farming operations effortlessly. More specifically, Asparagopsis taxiformis, a type of red seaweed, is generating lots of buzz. However, despite encouraging research on safety and efficacy, growing seaweed is difficult, slow, and capital-intensive.
So we set out to look for a solution that is not only safe and easy to use, but also one that is 10x cheaper, more scalable, and has a robust supply chain.
That is why we were thrilled to meet the Alga Bio team, which has developed a kelp based technology that takes the best properties of A. taxiformis but can scale faster than any other solution on the market. Moreover, Alga Bio’s results are best-in-class, with their kelp-based cow feed reducing emissions by 97%.
Today, we’re proud to announce that we led Alga’s $4M seed raise alongside Y Combinator, Day One Ventures, Cool Climate Collective, Pioneer Fund, USDA Climate Smart Commodities, and more.
It’s been years since I’ve chowed down milk-bathed Cocoa Puffs, but there is still plenty of dairy, meat, leather, and wool entangled in our lives.
We’re excited that farmers are jumping at the opportunity to work with Alga, as are leading companies along the ruminant value chain, including leading consumer-facing brands. I know that before long millions of children will be consuming methane-free, guilt-free products powered by Alga Bio.
So if your company works with methane-emitting ruminants, reach out here to the Alga Bio team to hear more about their solutions.
And if you’re looking for a role at a ‘fast mooving’ company, check out their open positions.