An agritech firm backed by the likes of Y-Combinator has been put up for sale after being plunged into administration, City AM can reveal.
Cambridge-based Supplant, which had raised more than £25m in funding since launch, is now searching for a rescue buyer and will accept offers over just £2.5m, according to an insolvency marketplace advert seen by City AM.
The firm, which also had an outpost in the US, had around three dozen staff at its peak, with revenues of around $1m. Trade creditor debts stood at $2m while the firm also had an outstanding $3.6m loan with California-based venture lender Western Technology Investment.
Supplant was set up to make sugars from fibre which can then be used in confectionery items like cookies, cakes and chocolates. Unlike traditional cane sugar, fibre-derived sugars behave physiologically differently in the body, allowing sweet foods to have a lower impact on blood-sugar levels, making them healthier for the digestive system. The firm has also developed its own flour for use in pasta, which claims to have fewer calories and as much as three times as much fibre.
The products were made from what Supplant called “the forgotten half of the harvest” – the fibre-rich, structural elements of crops such as corn cobs, oat hulls and wheat stalks which are often thrown away.
The company was founded in 2017 by Cambridge academic Dr Tom Simmons, a postdoctoral researcher at the department of biochemistry. The company had been backed by the likes of Manta Ray, Khosla, Felicis, EQT, Coatue and Y-Combinator. Its biggest funding round came in 2021, when it raised $24m at a valuation thought to be north of $100m. Previously, it secured a $5M seed round investment via Y-Combinator.
It had an expansive intellectual property portfolio including 20 granted patents, of which 8 were granted in the US, and other 40 patent pending applications. Its products were produced via a deal with a contract manufacturer in Asia.
Supplant did not respond to a request for comment.