SmiLe Inject invests in Food Tech company with eatable coating for fruit and vegetables

SmiLe Incubator’s angel investment company, SmiLe Inject Capital, invests 4 MSEK in Saveggy, an incubator company that develops a biobased coating as an alternative to protective plastic currently used to prolong the shelf life of fruit and vegetables. Almi Invest GreenTech and Christer Fåhraeus FSG Fond also participate in the SmiLe Inject-led investment round of a total of 8 MSEK. The money will be used for the completion of the product and a pilot launch in Sweden in 2022.

Every year, two billion tonnes of fruit and vegetables are produced, and as much as 45% of this is wasted. To prolong the shelf life of fruit and vegetables, plastic film is mainly used today, but due to both consumer demand and an EU ban on using fossil-based plastic to protect vegetables the demand for alternatives has increased significantly. 

Saveggy’s eco friendly and eatable solution, which is based on research from Lund University, consists of a liquid that is sprayed onto the vegetable. This gives the vegetable a coating that provides the same extended shelf life as plastic. 

”I am very proud of yet another investment in an innovative SmiLe company. Food tech is a hot area and Saveggy’s innovative solution answers an urgent need in the food industry to find eco friendly alternatives to plastic packaging. There is a great potential for the company’s scalable technology on a growing market that only for plastic-wrapped cucumbers in EU is estimated to exceed 1 BSEK today,” says Ebba Fåhraeus, CEO of SmiLe Incubator.

The product has already created great interest among food chains such as Lidl and ICA. The purpose of the capital raising is to complete the technical development and enable a first pilot launch of the product for cucumbers in Sweden.

Photo: Saveggy´s CEO Vahid Sohrabpour (to the left) and COO Arash Fayyazi COO. Photo: Green Challenge.

About SmiLe INJECT Capital AB: SmiLe INJECT Capital is the first angel investment company in Sweden that focuses solely on promising early-stage life science companies. Through INJECT, private investors are being offered the opportunity for the first time to benefit from SmiLe’s comprehensive life science expertise, international networks and unique insights into early-stage life science companies. The financing is provided by experienced business angels along with the state-owned venture capital company Saminvest.

For more information, please contact:

Ebba Fåhraeus, CEO of SmiLe Incubator, + 46 734000433

Vahid Sohrabpour, CEO and co-founder of Saveggy, + 46 760212172