Standing Ovation, the Paris-based precision fermentation startup producing casein from dairy waste streams, has raised €30 million ($34.2 million) in a Series B round.
The round comprises €25 million in equity, led jointly by the Ecotechnologies 2 fund managed by Bpifrance under France's France 2030 initiative and Crédit Mutuel Innovation, alongside existing investors Astanor, Bel Group, Seventure Partners, GoodStartUp, and Big Idea Ventures.
Three new investors joined: Danone Ventures, Angelor, and Newtree. An additional €5 million in non-dilutive financing was provided by Bpifrance and a banking syndicate.
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The round follows a €16 million Series A and takes total funding to date to roughly €46 million.
Standing Ovation was co-founded in 2020 by Romain Chayot, a microbiologist and agronomist who serves as Chief Scientific Officer, and is led by CEO Yvan Chardonnens.
The company's flagship product is Advanced Casein, a casein protein produced not from cows, but through precision fermentation of dairy side-streams, primarily acid whey from cheese production.
The significance of the target molecule is hard to overstate: casein makes up roughly 80% of milk's protein content and is responsible for the melt, stretch, and creaminess that make dairy products functionally irreplaceable in formulation.
Most of the precision fermentation sector has focused on whey proteins, which are technically simpler to produce. Standing Ovation is betting on casein, which is considerably harder, as the higher-value prize.
The industrial validation happened last October. Standing Ovation and Bel Group, the cheese conglomerate behind La Vache Qui Rit and a strategic partner since 2022, announced the first industrial-scale production of precision fermentation-derived casein using Bel's acid whey as feedstock.
An independent, certified life cycle assessment found the process delivers a 74% reduction in CO₂ emissions, a 99% reduction in land use, and a 68% reduction in water consumption compared to conventionally produced animal casein.
The result is a product Standing Ovation describes as a “drop-in” ingredient: functionally, nutritionally, and organoleptically equivalent to conventional casein, meaning food manufacturers do not need to reformulate recipes.
The Series B funds the commercial rollout. In the US, the company is targeting a 2026 launch, subject to certified GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) regulatory clearance, a more rigorous route than the self-affirmation pathway some competitors have used.
In Europe and Asia, the launch timeline is end 2027, pending regulatory approvals in those jurisdictions.
The company is taking an asset-light manufacturing approach, partnering with established fermentation manufacturers rather than building its own facilities, which should accelerate market entry.
The Bel Group relationship gives Standing Ovation a built-in supply of feedstock and a major industry validator; the arrival of Danone Ventures on the cap table adds a second dairy giant to the investor list, a notable signal for a sector where the incumbents have every incentive to control how fermentation-derived alternatives enter the market.