Inspiration for a brand new firm can come from many various locations. For Maya Ashkenazi Otmazgin, a biomedical engineer, it was whereas nursing her first little one that she obtained the concept for harnessing the well being advantages of breast milk, however in meals and wellness dietary supplements for adults.
“I questioned why we weren’t understanding the proteins inside breast milk and looking for bioequivalents in different sources,” she informed Nob6. “Breast milk is the ‘gold normal’ for vitamins, and grownups are being disadvantaged of one in all life’s biggest assets.”
Maya Ashkenazi Otmazgin, CEO and co-founder of Maolac Picture Credit: Maolac
She teamed up with Dr. Ariel Orbach and Eli Lerner in 2018 to kind Maolac, an Israeli meals tech startup centered on making a superfood by extracting proteins from bovine colostrum or plant-based analogs.
Collectively, the corporate’s group put collectively a library of types of over 1,500 recognized bioactive proteins in human breast milk. They then recognized that bovine colostrum is a kind of “different sources” that has over 400 homolog proteins with over 95% biosimilarity with human breast milk.
Colostrum is a nutrient-rich substance that’s current within the milk of mammals for the primary few days after giving start. It’s typically discarded at dairies, which accounts for greater than 5 billion liters of waste per 12 months, Ashkenazi Otmazgin mentioned.
She additionally touts that the corporate is the primary to “establish and extract the practical proteins from bovine colostrum” and make practical milk protein mixtures from that colostrum, utilizing a proteomics discovery platform and computational biology that could possibly be used for various immune-boosting purposes.
The milk protein combination appears to be like like a white powder that’s digested within the human physique equally to breast milk and is appropriate so as to add to meals, even cooked meals like pasta, with out dropping performance, Ashkenazi Otmazgin added.
Maolac’s combination was additionally confirmed to supply increased total efficacy at decrease dosages. Rivals within the house are charging $500 per kilogram, and Ashkenazi Otmazgin says her firm will cost comparable for its product, however Maolac can ship higher efficacy at a fraction of the unit economics.
Maolac is pre-revenue at this level and dealing on its first product line of anti-inflammatory aids, one for athletes to cut back muscle pressure and enhance restoration time, and one to enhance aged mobility.
Ashkenazi Otmazgin expects these merchandise to hit the market in 2023. She additionally claims the market potential for practical elements is big, about $22 billion per 12 months.
Serving to to speed up the merchandise is a brand new $3.2 million seed spherical that was closed in January. OurCrowd led the funding and was joined by the Strauss Group’s Kitchen FoodTech Hub, the Meals Tech Lab, Ventures Israel, NAOMI Investments and Mediterranean Towers Ventures. The funding boosts the corporate’s complete funding to only over $4 million.
“The concept of remodeling the primary, nutrient-rich milk of cows which have simply given start right into a supply for human protein is a stroke of pure genius,” OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved mentioned in a written assertion. “Billions of liters of bovine colostrum are discarded every year. Maolac takes this waste and creates a product of giant potential profit to tens of millions at a time when the world is desperately looking for new sustainable sources of protein. The corporate is an ideal instance of the round financial system in motion.”
The brand new funding permits Maolac to construct a pilot facility that can characteristic small-scale manufacturing capabilities of about 100 kilograms monthly and create analytics and samples for patrons and medical trials. Ashkenazi Otmazgin additionally plans so as to add to the corporate’s group of 12 staff.
As well as, the corporate is at the moment engaged on getting regulatory approval in each the U.S. and Europe and is in discussions with meals and complement firms in Israel and dairy firms all over the world.
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