Amai Proteins
Sweet Designer Proteins as a Sugar Substitute
Startup A Agriculture & Food Technologies Est. 2016
Total Raised
$22.82M
A
Last Round
Undisclosed
12 rounds
Investors
11
10 public
Team
7
51-200 employees
Confidence
100/100
News
19
articles
Patents
1
About
Amai Proteins has developed Sweelin, a hyper-sweet protein from the serendipity berry that reduces added sugar in food and beverages by 40-70% without compromising taste, health, cost, or sustainability. With regulatory approvals and a strong portfolio of patents, Amai ("sweet" in Japanese) produces Designer Proteins using its Pro-Cube platform, a three-part process. The platform’s Pro-Design AI-CPD (Computational Protein Design) is led by founder Dr. Ilan Samish, whose work in protein design draws inspiration from the resilience of proteins in extreme environments. Through this platform, Amai developed Sweelin®, a protein that is both highly stable and approximately 3,000 times sweeter than sugar. The Pro-Planet Microbial Precision Fermentation process then produces the Designer Proteins through scalable and cost-efficient aerobic fermentation, utilizing food-grade microorganisms. This approach yields a pure protein powder free of the host organism. Finally, Pro-Taste Food Technology assesses the protein’s functionality, stability, and compatibility with other ingredients in food and beverages, enhanced through feedback from a specialized tasting panel.
Classification
Sector
Climate TechFood & Land UseSustainable ProteinsAgriculture & Food TechnologiesFood TechNovel Food & Ingredients
Core Technology
BiologicalsMolecules
Target Customer
Agriculture & FoodProcessed FoodsIngredients
Business Model
B2B2CB2BB2C
Tags
climate-techlow-sugar-foodshealthcarebioinformaticsfoodtechfood-and-beveragenovel-ingredientsfood-ingredientsnutritionalternative-proteincloud-basedbiotechnology
Funding & Events
Sep 2023
SAFE $9M
Mar 2021
SAFE $5M
ZORA Ventures
Jul 2025
A Round Undisclosed
iAngels
Jul 2017
Seed $850K
The Kitchen FoodTech Hub, Israel Innovation Authority
Jan 2020
Non-equity $1.15M
EIT Food Accelerator Network, Israel Innovation Authority
Jan 2017
Non-equity $20K
Google
Jan 2017
Non-equity $100K
Amazon
Feb 2019
Convertible Debt $600K
The Kitchen FoodTech Hub, Israel Innovation Authority
Aug 2021
Undisclosed Round Undisclosed
The Chartered Group
Apr 2020
A Round Undisclosed
Colin Magne, ZORA Ventures, Dragones Venture Partners
Apr 2020
Undisclosed Round $6M
iAngels, Welltech Ventures, Sucden Ventures, BayWa r.e. Energy Ventures, K3 Ventures
Apr 2019
Non-equity $100K
Google
News (19)
Dec 16, 2024 · www.prnewswire.com
growth-positive
/PRNewswire/ -- Amai Proteins, a scale-up designer of novel proteins that answer the needs of consumers and industry, has succesfullly completed world's first...
Nov 8, 2024 · www.globes.co.il
growth-positive
החברה הישראלית שמייצרת תחליף לסוכר: "אבקה לבנה שעושה טוב"
InvestmentPartnersManagement Changes
Oct 15, 2024 · www.prnewswire.com
growth-positive
Amai Proteins wins multiple regulatory approvals for its calorie-free sweet protein: sweelin®
CustomersPartners
Jun 26, 2022 · 93newstv.com
Sugar replacement startup wins global award
Sep 6, 2021 · www.calcalistech.com
growth-positive
Amai Proteins has found the sweet solution for sugar
Expand
May 4, 2021 · nocamels.com
growth-positive
Israeli Food Tech Startup Amai Proteins Replaces Sugar With Healthy, Sweet Proteins
CustomersPartnersInvestmentManagement ChangesExpand
Dec 4, 2020 · www.prnewswire.com
growth-positive
Ocean Spray and Amai Proteins Partner to Create the First Protein-Sweetened Reduced Sugar Cranberry Juice
Partners
Nov 11, 2020 · www.calcalistech.com
growth-positive
Israeli Foodtech company Amai Proteins wins "Call for Wellness Innovations" award at the Global Wellness Summit
Investment
Apr 11, 2019 · agfundernews.com
growth-positive
'Over Ten Thousand Times Sweeter Than Sugar': Meet The Man Making Some of The World's Sweetest Proteins - AFN
PartnersInvestment
Jan 10, 2019 · medium.com
In the Future, Your Food Will Be Sweetened With Protein
Oct 19, 2018 · www.wsj.com
This Sugar Substitute Aims to Avoid a Bitter End
Sep 13, 2018 · www.jta.org
growth-positive
Israeli startups want to replace your sugar with high-tech alternatives - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
CustomersPartners
Jul 30, 2018 · www.israel21c.org
growth-positive
New sweet protein holds out hope for diabetics
Investment
Jul 15, 2018 · thoughtforfood.org
Food 2.0: Three companies that are changing the way we eat John Cumbers, SynBioBeta at TFF Academy
Jun 19, 2018 · www.foodnavigator-asia.com
growth-positive
Could computationally designed sweet proteins revolutionise sugar replacement sector?
CustomersPartners
Jun 12, 2018 · www.globes.co.il
growth-positive
Israeli co offers sweet protein as sugar substitute
CustomersPartners
May 14, 2018 · www.foodnavigator-asia.com
growth-positive
Future Food Asia Award: Here are the 10 finalists competing for the US$100,000 prize
InvestmentExpand
May 2, 2017 · www.israel21c.org
growth-positive
14 disruptive food-tech startups that will change how we eat
InvestmentExpand
Apr 26, 2017 · agfundernews.com
growth-positive
Israel's FoodTech Industry Leaps Forward, According to The Kitchen
PartnersInvestment
Details
Product Stage
Alpha
Employees
51-200
Exact Count
55
Founded
2016
Registrar
515533545
Crunchbase
amai-proteins
Locations
Haim Holtsman St 2a, Rehovot, Israel
Links
Website
LinkedIn
Facebook
Careers
Admin
Last Update
Sep 23, 2025
Verified by
Natalia Golczar
Claimed
Yes
Missing
markets
Team (7)
ilan samish
Founder & CEO
Founder
Moshe Hukaylo
CFO
Wouter Claerhout
CMO
Yigal Gezundhait
CPO
Charles Gast
VP Business Development
Shmuel Marko
VP Food Technology
Anat Serber
VP People & Impact
Internal
Created by
Ilan Samish (ilan.samish@amaiproteins.com)
Created
2018-01-02T00:00:00.000Z
Last editor
Ortal Wein (ortalw@sncentral.org)