With high-protein nutrition now mainstream, Lyon’s Verley raises €32 million to expand production

Verley, a French nutrition-focused ingredient company developing high-performance whey proteins through precision fermentation, has secured an oversubscribed €32 million Series A financing round – four years after its inception.

The round was led by Alven, with participation from Blast and the French Tech Seed fund (managed on behalf of the French government by Bpifrance as part of France 2030), as well as past investors including Sofinnova, Sparkfood, Captech and Founders Future. With additional non-dilutive support from Bpifrance.

Stéphane Mac Millan, CEO and co-founder of Verley, said: “Verley’s mission is to address the growing global demand for high-quality nutrition while preserving the planet’s natural resources. Verley is now ready to help alleviate the pressure the dairy industry is facing. We are very proud to be building a Europe an champion leveraging decades of know – how in the dairy industry.”

Verley’s €32 million Series A positions the company toward the upper end of precision fermentation and functional protein ingredient funding activity in Europe in 2025/2026.

In comparison, early-stage players covered by EU-Startups such as SUMM Ingredients raised approximately €1.7 million in Seed funding to launch a multifunctional fermented protein ingredient, while PFx Biotech secured around €2.5 million to advance its precision fermentation platform for allergy-free human milk proteins.

Adjacent fermentation technology funding includes EvodiaBio, which raised about €6 million to scale fermentation-based flavour technologies.

Taken together, the EU-Startups-reported funding for these related ventures totals roughly €10 million, underscoring that Verley’s Series A is considerably larger than most fermentation ingredient financings reported in 2025.

Further analysis suggests that significant Series-level funding remains comparatively uncommon within the European precision fermentation and functional ingredient ecosystem, with most capital flowing into Seed-stage and adjacent technology plays.

Hélène Briand, co-founder and Chief Innovation and Commercial Officer, adds: “This financing allows us to scale not only our production, but the performance promise behind our ingredients. Our functionalisation technologies are designed to meet real industrial constraints and application needs. That focus on performance is what makes precision fermentation relevant and viable at scale.”

Founded in 2022, Verley is a food and nutrition ingredient company developing high-purity, functionalised whey proteins through precision fermentation. By combining nutritional performance, industrial scalability and sustainability, Verley aims to support food and beverage manufacturers in developing next-generation high-protein products aligned with evolving consumer and market expectations.

According to data provided by the company, in 2026, the global protein market is expected to continue posting record figures, after reaching a value of €26.9 billion ($31.8 billion) in 2025. High-protein nutrition has become a mainstream expectation across categories, while demographic growth, evolving dietary habits and the rapid expansion of GLP-1 treatments (1 in 8 adults in the US were taking a GLP – 1 drug in 2025) are further increasing demand for high-quality, digestible protein ingredients.

In this context, Verley develops functional whey protein ingredients, more precisely beta lactoglobuline (BLG), designed to deliver the nutritional and functional performance expected by food and nutrition manufacturers. Verley has built its approach to integrate seamlessly into existing food value chains.

Verley’s ingredients allegedly only require a fraction of the natural resources used in conventional production, addressing a growing demand from manufacturers and consumers for reduced-impact products.

Verley’s portfolio, marketed under the FermWhey range, consists of functionalised whey proteins engineered for performance in real-world formulations (high-protein yoghurts,​ protein shots…), combining high purity, advanced solubility, emulsification, gelling properties and optimised nutritional profiles.

The proceeds of the round will primarily support Verley’s U.S. market entry, including commercial deployment and early customer scale-up, alongside a ramp-up of production capacities. The company will also continue investing in R&D to further strengthen the performance, efficiency and sustainability of its technologies.

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