StartLife alumnus Time-travelling Milkman has successfully raised €850.000 in funding to strengthen its team, scale the production and expand the market entry of Oleocream, a natural, healthy and sustainable creaminess solution. The investment comes from new investor Alianza Team and existing shareholders, including StartLife Investor Partners Oost NL and SHIFT Invest, and Oterap. The capital injection follows previous investment in the company in 2021.

Time-travelling Milkman (TTM), a spin-off of Wageningen University & Research (WUR), aspires to disrupt dairy and vegetable oil industries. Time-travelling Milkman has launched a readily available and scalable solution, Oleocream, that can assist consumer brands to reveal their full indulgence potential.

TTM’s mission is to bring irresistible healthy creaminess in plant-based dairy which is urgently needed for a successful transition to sustainable diets. Taste, texture and nutrition of plant-based dairy keep disappointing consumers. One can even say that this jeopardizes the ongoing plant-based transition.

This is a big issue since the planet can’t sustain 10 billion people living on animal-based diets. Plant-based dairy is vital for a sustainable future. TTM provides irresistible plant creaminess to transform plant-based dairy into the yummy part of our food culture.

Innovative and easy-to-scale creaminess solution

Traditionally, yummy and fatty products (e.g. ice creams, breakfast spreads and cooking creams) are made with dairy cream.

TTM develops exactly the same creaminess but starting from plant seeds. A patented process converts seeds to Oleocream. When Oleocream is then inserted in products it brings the missing creaminess and creates an unforgettable experience for the consumer, and all this without animals.

TTM’s nutritious fat ingredients are made through a process that extracts natural fat droplets, called Oleosomes, from seeds. Oleosomes are natural emulsion droplets with similar functionality to that of milk fat droplets that allow Oleocream to be positioned as a dairy cream equivalent for creamy and tasty products, while having almost no environmental impact.

Investment for broad impact

Dimitris Karefyllakis, CEO and Co-founder at TTM, says : “We have a clear plan on how we want to achieve our ambitions with TTM. You can’t do this alone; you need partners to help you take the next step. Alianza Team, Oost NL, SHIFT Invest and Oterap are now supporting us with knowledge, network and capital, in order to optimize our production on an industrial scale and achieve all our commercial targets.”

Carl Heijne, Team Manager Food at Oost NL: “The protein transition is a major challenge of our time. But existing plant-based dairy alternatives still have many disadvantages. TTM has an innovative solution on its hands. We’ve previously invested in TTM and the team has made great progress since then. Exemplary is that the world renowned vegetarian restaurant De Nieuwe Winkel used TTM’s ingredients to create their dishes . We are proud that as Oost NL we can help further accelerate the market introduction.”

The protein transition is a major challenge of our time. But existing plant-based dairy alternatives still have many disadvantages. TTM has an innovative solution on its hands.

Carl Heijne, Team Manager Food, Oost NL