Leeds University Spinout MicroLub Raises $10m to Scale Globally

A University of Leeds spinout has raised $10m to take its food technology global.

MicroLub, a deeptech ingredients company born out of the university’s food science research and based at the Nexus innovation hub in Leeds, has completed the funding round led by Yorkshire investor Northern Gritstone. The money will fund expansion into the United States and Asia, grow the team, and help turn customer trials into commercial deals. It is a significant vote of confidence in a Leeds business tackling one of the food industry’s biggest challenges: making products healthier without wrecking how they taste.

What MicroLub Does

The company is tackling a real headache for food manufacturers: how to cut fat and calories, or add protein, without ruining the taste and texture people expect. Reducing fat usually means falling back on starches, gums or substitute fats that compromise the eating experience. MicroLub’s patented, protein-based technology takes a different route, replicating the lubricating properties of fat using water, which the company says lets manufacturers cut fat and calories by up to 75% while keeping the indulgent mouthfeel. The timing is pointed. The rapid spread of GLP-1 weight-loss medicines like Ozempic is pushing shoppers towards higher-protein, lower-calorie food, and tighter regulation is forcing reformulation across the industry. Founded by Professor Anwesha Sarkar of the university’s School of Food Science and Nutrition, the company has moved from lab bench to industrial-scale production and is now working with some of the world’s largest food and ingredient firms.

“For too long, consumers have had to choose between food products that taste great but are unhealthy, and those that are nutritious but compromise on the eating experience. With MicroLub’s technology, that’s no longer the case.”

David Peters, CEO, MicroLub

A Leeds Research Success Story

The round is led by Northern Gritstone, the investor set up to back spinouts from the universities of Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield, with all existing backers also taking part, including NPIF II, PXN Equity Finance, part of the £660m Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II. It is the latest in a run of Leeds businesses drawing on that fund, and another example of Northern investors backing home-grown science. The company still works closely with the University of Leeds, using its research facilities alongside its own innovation laboratory at Nexus. Northern Gritstone’s chief executive Duncan Johnson called it exactly the kind of world-class university spinout the firm was created to support, backing it to become a globally significant ingredient-technology business. For a city keen to turn its research strength into scale-up success, it is a compelling example of the model working.