Rumin8 has vowed to decarbonise 100 million cattle by 2030 and to this end has just raised US$12 million from Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) with participation from Australian agri-food business Harvest Road Group.
Existing Rumin8 investors, the Australian-based Aware Super Sentient WA Growth Fund and US-based Prelude Ventures, also added to their shareholdings in this second seed funding round.
The funding will help Rumin8 scale up quickly through the construction of a pilot plant and commercial trials around the world.
Other entities working on red seaweed to reduce livestock emissions include FutureFeed, a commercial entity established by Australian government agency the CSIRO.
In 2020, FutureFeed won a A$1 million international prize to help commercialise the discovery, but it acknowledged at the time that the main challenge lay in scaling up production of the ocean seaweed.
Instead of harvesting from the marine ecosystem, Rumin8 will manufacture the plant’s methane-reducing bioactive in a laboratory.
“Rumin8 offers a low cost, scalable toolbox that has already proven to be effective in reducing emissions,” BEV’s investment committee co-leader Carmichael Roberts said.
“Our team will support Rumin8 in working closely with farmers to expand the reach of this solution globally.”
According to Rumin8 managing director David Messina, livestock contribute an estimated six per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions through methane production.
“If we can reduce those emissions – and our research is demonstrating that we can – it has a big impact, not just on the planet, but also on the long-term sustainability of the world’s livestock industries and the rural communities which rely on them.”
Messina said laboratory results continued to yield excellent results with animal trials reflecting these results, while financial modelling indicated products could be supplied at a commercial price point.
“Prior to the Phase 2 seed funding round, we were progressing a number of key work streams sequentially. Now we have the resources to progress them in parallel, speeding up the road to commercialisation.”