Seed · €5MNoPalm Ingredients
Replacing palm oil with yeast-grown fats
Sustainable FatsFood Planet Prize FinalistNetherlands
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The Palm Oil Problem
Palm oil is in roughly 50% of all supermarket products — from cookies and crackers to shampoo and lipstick. It's also one of the leading drivers of tropical deforestation, responsible for destroying millions of hectares of rainforest in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. NoPalm Ingredients has a radical solution: grow the same fats in a lab, using food waste as fuel.
The Dutch startup feeds potato peels, food processing scraps, and other agricultural side streams to specialized oleaginous yeast in industrial fermentation tanks. The yeast converts these sugars into food-grade fats and oils that are functionally identical to palm oil, shea butter, and cocoa butter. Named one of four global finalists for the 2026 Curt Bergfors Food Planet Prize, NoPalm is turning waste into wonder.
The Opportunity
The global palm oil market is worth over $65 billion. Even capturing a small fraction of that with a deforestation-free alternative represents a massive business opportunity. NoPalm's approach is particularly compelling because it solves two problems at once: eliminating demand for destructive palm oil while also upcycling food waste that would otherwise go to landfill.
About the NoPalm Team
NoPalm Ingredients is a Dutch startup tackling one of the food industry's most entrenched environmental problems: the global reliance on palm oil. The team has developed a fermentation-based process that feeds food waste — potato peels, processing scraps, and agricultural side streams — to specialized oleaginous yeast, which converts those sugars into food-grade fats and oils.
The company's fats are functionally identical to palm oil, shea butter, and cocoa butter, offering food and cosmetics manufacturers a deforestation-free alternative. NoPalm's dual impact model — eliminating demand for destructive palm oil while upcycling food waste that would otherwise go to landfill — earned them recognition as one of four global finalists for the 2026 Curt Bergfors Food Planet Prize.
Backed by a €5M seed round, NoPalm has grown to approximately 34 employees and is targeting a global palm oil market worth over $65 billion. The team is focused on proving that sustainable alternatives can compete at scale in one of the world's most established commodity markets.
2026
Food Planet Prize Finalist
Sources: Public press releases, SEC and state business filings, published interviews, news coverage, and company disclosures.
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