Arborea

Welcome to the future of sustainable and healthy food

Global food security is an increasingly pressing problem, driven by population growth and climate change, and exacerbated by slowing crop yield improvements and dwindling availability of new agricultural land. By 2050, traditional agricultural practices will not be sufficient to adequately feed the global population, so the search for new land, water and energy-efficient agricultural technologies is becoming progressively urgent.

BioSolar Leaf
Arborea spent the last five years researching the best way to grow organic, healthy food ingredients with the lowest environmental impact. Their ultimate goal is to feed the world’s present and future generations while preserving our planet. The London-based tech business developed a breakthrough cultivation system called the BioSolar Leaf.

Arborea’s technology uses sunlight to mimic the functioning mechanisms of a real leaf to self-maintain the ideal growth conditions homogeneously at different scales, using the lowest energy inputs. It also – uniquely – sequesters CO2 from most exhaust gasses, even with very low CO2 concentration and at atmospheric pressure.

Arborea’s food ingredients and proteins are wholly vegan, Non-GMO, hormone-free and mostly carbon neutral. The unique functioning mechanisms of the BioSolar Leaf impedes contamination to produce the safest and purest ingredients.

A breakthrough biomimicry reinventing cultivation

European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program
Arborea’s team is composed of exceptional scientists and engineers from world-leading institutions such as Imperial College London, Oxford University and UC Berkeley. The team is comprised of experts in industrial biotechnology with a cumulative 50+ years of industry experience, combined with the commercial acumen that is required to effectively execute their vision of a prosperous, sustainable future.

The project has already received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, and is continuously supported by strong scientific and business advisors from world-class organizations. 

A breakthrough biomimicry reinventing cultivation
At Rubio, we believe that Arborea can play a major role in fighting climate change. Their technology means that we will be able to produce clean and healthy food while harmonizing with Earth’s regulatory carbon-cycles on a massive scale! Our investment will enable Arborea to take a quantum leap. The funding will help them to scale their BSL technology at a demo facility in Portugal, which will be used to demonstrate their ability to cultivate commercial-grade phycocyanin and astaxanthin, which are high-value functional ingredients used in food and beverage applications, nutraceuticals and cosmetics.

Want to know more about this breakthrough microalgae venture? Check out their website. 

Tijl Hoefnagels, Food & Ag venture partner Rubio: “We believe that microalgae have the potential to become one of the most sustainable food sources on our planet. Arborea has devised an innovative and elegant solution that leverages photosynthesis to convert plentiful and surplus inputs like CO2 into lipids, proteins and other food ingredients. We are proud to support their ambitions to bring algae production with a very low CO2 footprint to scale. Let’s accelerate the world’s transition to a more sustainable and healthy food system!”