Business Finland has granted Solar Foods funding amounting to EUR 77.8 million. Solar Foods is Finnish Biotechnology Research that introduces a game-changing new protein Solein for the global food industry.
The funding consists of a grant of EUR 39.6 million and an R&D loan of EUR 38.1 million, related to the company’s IPCEI (Important Projects of Common European Interest) notification approved by the European Commission. The funding is intended for the construction and commissioning of Factory 02 in Selkäharju, Lappeenranta, Finland.
The funding decision by Business Finland forms part of the financing plan communicated by Solar Foods in October 2025.
According to Solar Foods, “Solein originates in a single-cell organism that we discovered in the Finnish wilderness. It has lived in nature for billions of years, long before humans existed, long before agriculture was conceived. It was always there. We finally found a way to work with it.”
Global food demand is rising constantly, while at the same time, land, water, and climate stability are increasingly constrained. As climate pressure mounts and traditional agriculture reaches its limits, a breakthrough is rapidly moving from theory into practice: making food without land use, farms, and animals, by converting gases into protein. A completely new way of producing food that is not only viable, but also very easily scalable.
We are pleased with Business Finland’s funding decision. Solar Foods has executed its financing plan, communicated in October last year, with determination, and this funding decision is a significant part of the total financing in line with the company’s strategy.
Rami Jokela, CEO of Solar Foods
“Supporting bold breakthroughs such as Solar Foods is part of Business Finland’s strategy. Our role is to raise the level of ambition in Finnish R&D by sharing risk with companies pursuing transformative innovations. We were able to structure a significant financing package by combining Business Finland funding with EU clean transition instruments. Projects like this carry risks, but they are exactly the kind of high-ambition, high-expertise investments Finland needs to create entirely new industries and future growth,” says Lassi Noponen, Director General of Business Finland.
Solar Foods aims to make the final investment decision for Factory 02 during 2026. The company continues to prepare the investment decision, with work focusing, among other things, on securing sufficient binding customer agreements, building the company’s partner network, advancing the design of the production facility, implementing the financing plan, obtaining novel food approval in the EU and securing a No Questions Letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The EUR 38.1 million R&D loan has a term of 10 years, with the first five years constituting a grace period. The interest rate is 1%, and the loan is granted without any collateral requirements. The decision to grant the loan was made by Business Finland.
The hydrogen IPCEI initiative (Hy2Use) focuses on research, innovation and the first industrial deployment of relevant infrastructure in the European hydrogen value chain. Solar Foods was selected as part of the project through the IPCEI (Important Projects of Common European Interest) notification approved by the EU in September 2022. In Finland, projects related to the hydrogen economy value chain form part of Finland’s Sustainable Growth Programme (Next Generation EU), which is funded by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). These projects contribute to the Government’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2035.
SOURCE
Biology, not farming, will feed the world – How Solar Foods is scaling its innovation to feed billions – Solar Foods
