NEW TECH FOODS

A new US food-tech company, Lasso, has been launched by the team behind plant-based meat start-up Tender Food, supported by $6.5 million in new funding.

The Tender Food brand – which produces clean label and plant-based alternatives to pork, chicken and beef – will become just one of several other brands, soon to be announced, under Lasso’s broader portfolio.

Aiming to create a new generation of healthier foods, Boston-headquartered Lasso is built on the company’s proprietary technology, Lasso SpinTech. The system uses physics to weave together protein and fibre, aiming to create new consumer products that were ‘previously unattainable’.

Mike Messersmith, Lasso’s CEO, said: “Consumers are no longer accepting the status quo in packaged food. Evidence of that is everywhere from the MAHA movement to vocal pushbacks on ultra-processed foods, and the influence of GLP-1 therapies on consumption patterns and preferences.”

While the industry needs new solutions, Messersmith said it has been “handicapped by antiquated processing machines invented over 100 years ago – and wholly ill-equipped to meet the needs of consumers in 2025”.

“At Lasso, we want to use our technology to step into that void and create progress,” he added. “Our patented technology offers new ways of creating protein and fibre-rich foods with clean labels and competitive cost structures that will jumpstart major momentum in growing categories across the grocery store.”

Guided by Messersmith, the team has been deploying its commercial-scale technology over the past year to create clean label innovations beyond the technology’s first plant-based meat application under the Tender Food brand. These include protein-rich snacks and pet food.

The $6.5 million in capital was led by Rhapsody Venture Partners, with participation from Safar Partners, Claridge Venture Partners and others. It will enable Lasso to commercialise its technology across new, high-growth food categories.

Lasso originated at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute, where founders Kit Parker, Luke MacQueen, Christophe Chantre and Grant Gonzalez invented – and spent seven years refining – their novel food processing technology.

They describe the tech as an ‘advanced cotton candy machine’ – according to the team, it is versatile and cost effective, capable of creating nutritious and tasty goods with ‘exceptional’ texture from ‘nearly any ingredient’.

Since, Lasso SpinTech has seen the launch of its first brand application, Tender Food, in 2020, and has scaled from a countertop system in a lab to a commercial-scale system producing hundreds of thousands of pounds of product annually.

The system eliminates the need for high heat, excessive sugars or artificial additives. It is also compact (around the size of a washing machine) and uses less energy than a toaster oven, reducing operating cost and boosting efficiency.

Messersmith described the funding raise as a “major milestone” for the newly formed, wider food-tech group, commenting: “We are on the cusp of introducing truly innovative new foods made of simple ingredients that everyone understands – both through brands we create and in working with global partners to bring new products to market through licensing agreements.”

“There is nothing on the market that can match what Lasso can achieve with this technology. We are thrilled for people to taste these new products and take this business to a whole new level.”