An agritech company supported by investors including Y-Combinator has been placed on the market following its collapse into administration, City AM can reveal.
Cambridge-headquartered Supplant, which had secured over £25m in investment since its inception, is currently seeking a rescue purchaser and will consider bids exceeding just £2.5m, according to an insolvency marketplace listing viewed by City AM.
The business, which also maintained operations in the US, employed approximately three dozen personnel at its height, generating revenues of roughly $1m, as reported by .
Trade creditor liabilities totalled $2m whilst the company also carried an outstanding $3.6m loan facility with California-based venture lender Western Technology Investment.
Supplant was established to produce sugars from fibre which could subsequently be utilised in confectionery products such as biscuits, cakes and chocolates.
In contrast to conventional cane sugar, fibre-derived sugars function physiologically differently within the body, enabling sweet foods to exert a reduced impact on blood-sugar levels, rendering them healthier for the digestive system.
The company had also developed its own flour for pasta applications, which claimed to contain fewer calories and up to three times the fibre content.
The products were manufactured from what Supplant termed "the forgotten half of the harvest" – the fibre-rich, structural components of crops such as corn cobs, oat hulls and wheat stalks which are frequently discarded. The firm was established in 2017 by Cambridge scholar Dr Tom Simmons, a postdoctoral researcher at the department of biochemistry.
Notable backers include Manta Ray, Khosla, Felicis, EQT, Coatue and Y-Combinator. Its most significant funding round occurred in 2021, when it garnered $24m at a valuation believed to exceed $100m.
Prior to this, it secured a $5M seed round investment through Y-Combinator.
Supplant boasts an extensive intellectual property portfolio, comprising 20 granted patents, with 8 awarded in the US, and an additional 40 patent applications pending. Its products are manufactured via a contract with an Asian manufacturer.
Supplant did not provide a comment when approached.
