Ventures Thrive Semi-Finalist Secures €100k Employment Grant
FUNKI, an Estonian biotech startup looking to revolutionise the food industry, has just secured a €96,000 grant from SekMo - a grant programme headed by the Estonian Research Council - allowing them to welcome a new addition to the team.
As of August 1st, the FUNKI team will thus be bolstered by the presence of Kellen Zanfonato, a researcher holding years of experience in microbial fermentation. This hire is expected to help FUNKI speed up their R&D efforts, putting side-streams at the forefront of their developments.
Ms Zanfonato’s arrival is preceded by FUNKI’s recent hiring of Spanish full-time fermentation specialist Ruth Perez Gallego, whose main focus lies mastering the fermentation process based on sugar.
Ruth appears to have already cemented herself as a vital part of the FUNKI team, having recently represented the startup at the 3rd Fermentation-Enabled Protein Summit in the Netherlands, thanks to the support of the Beamline Accelerator, the Environmental Investment Centre, and the Estonian Ministry of Climate.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Ventures Thrive, project No 101073762 has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe framework programme, under the European Innovation Council’s StartUpEU initiative.
