Manufacturing technology company NS/TX Industries, the parent firm behind alternative protein brand NEW/SCHOOL FOODS, has raised 10.5 million US dollars ($10.5 million) in Series A funding and non-dilutive grants.
The capital injection is designated to further scale the company's proprietary alternative protein manufacturing platform and fund the construction of its automated V2 Assembly Line.
The investment arrives as food-tech developers focus on transition strategies to shift from pilot-scale production to high-volume, cost-competitive manufacturing, addressing key commercial scaling and texture limitations within the plant-based sector.
Investment Consortium and Strategic Backing
The Series A funding round was co-led by Inter IKEA Development BV and Lever VC.
The financing round also secured capital from a diverse group of food-tech and regional venture funds, alongside government-backed development programs:
Venture Capital Partners: Featuring continued investment from Good Startup and Verdex Capital.
Internal Commitment: Backed by personal capital from the company’s founder and Chief Executive Officer, Chris Bryson.
Non-Dilutive Funding: Supported by non-dilutive development grants from Protein Industries Canada, a national industry association focused on accelerating Canada’s value-added agriculture and food processing sectors.
Automated Scale and Capacity Expansion
The newly secured funds will immediately finance the construction and commissioning of NS/TX’s automated V2 Assembly Line.
The automated manufacturing system will be housed inside the company's existing 28,000-square-foot facility located in Toronto, Canada. By automating the manufacturing process, the new V2 line is projected to expand production capacity by more than ten-fold while simultaneously lowering operational overheads and finished product costs.
The initiative follows the successful commercial deployment of the company's V1 assembly line in late 2024. Through hundreds of trial runs, machinery modifications, and the integration of digital quality assurance monitoring, the company successfully validated its processing scalability, achieving a ten-fold reduction in production costs during its initial operational phase. These technological breakthroughs have resulted in several new patents and custom equipment designs.
According to Raffaele Govinazzi, Innovation Ventures Leader at Inter IKEA Group, the investment decision was driven by the manufacturer's rapid technical progress in overcoming complex engineering challenges to demonstrate the commercial versatility of its manufacturing setup.
Technical Scaffolding and Product Formulations
The primary technological differentiator for the NS/TX platform is its patented texturisation and scaffolding system.
Unlike conventional alternative protein manufacturing, which relies heavily on high-temperature extrusion processing, the company's scaffolding technology is engineered to replicate the complex physical structures of animal tissue. The platform is capable of manufacturing both red meat and seafood alternatives, delivering several functional advantages:
📈 Greater Scalability – Provides superior process tuneability compared to traditional extrusion methods, ensuring structural consistency as production volumes scale.
🥩 Flexible Product Formulations – Supports the manufacture of complex whole-cuts, such as steaks and fillets, alongside unstructured formats, including burgers and breaded strips, using the same unified assembly line.
🔬 Tuneable Textural Replication – Recreates the macrostructure and microstructure of meat and fish, combining muscle fibres and connective tissues into a single, layered structure with adjustable firmness and elasticity.
🌿 Clean-Label Standards – Formulates products without synthetic binding agents like methylcellulose, offering the flexibility to utilise diverse proteins, fats, natural colourings, and nutritional enhancements.
🍳 Visual Cooking Transformations – Delivers a raw initial product appearance that visually changes and browns during cooking to replicate the sensory experience of conventional proteins.
💧 Customisable Flavour Delivery – Integrates oil-based flavours and multiple independent flavour-delivery systems directly into the structural scaffold.
Regional Growth and Global Brand Partnerships
According to Tyler Groeneveld, Chief Executive Officer of Protein Industries Canada, the continued commercial scaling of the Toronto facility highlights Canada’s potential to build high-value agricultural processing capabilities, creating new economic pipelines and food security solutions.
Chris Bryson, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of NS/TX, stated that the automation of the platform will allow the business to produce alternative proteins that are cost-competitive with conventional meat products.
With the expanded capacity provided by the upcoming V2 line, the manufacturer intends to establish commercial partnerships with leading food and beverage brands globally, licensing its proprietary technology and supplying high-volume ingredients to international consumer markets.
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