Greencovery Raises €1M to Turn Cocoa Side Streams Into Valuable Food Ingredients

Dutch FoodTech startup Greencovery has raised €1 million to scale its cocoa upcycling technology toward industrial production, as the company works to turn food-processing side streams into valuable, functional ingredients.

The Wageningen-based startup has secured the new investment from ROM InWest, existing investor Brightlands Venture Partners (BVP), and a private investor.

The company is now taking the next step in its growth journey. Following the €1 million investment, Greencovery is also working to close an additional €3 million funding round, with commitments already secured from both existing and new investors.

The additional capital is expected to support full-scale commercial manufacturing and allow Greencovery to supply its upcycled ingredients at significantly higher volumes.

What Is Greencovery?

Greencovery is a Dutch FoodTech company focused on upcycling food-industry side streams.

Instead of allowing useful materials generated during food production to be discarded, burned, or sold into lower-value applications, Greencovery uses proprietary separation and purification technology to recover valuable compounds and turn them into functional food ingredients.

The company's technology is designed to work with different types of food-processing side streams, including materials from cocoa, coffee, oil press cakes, nuts and other food production processes.

Greencovery describes its mission as helping transform food side streams back into food while creating economic value and reducing waste.

From Food Waste to Functional Ingredients

The basic idea behind Greencovery is relatively simple but potentially significant.

Food manufacturers generate large quantities of side streams during production. These materials can contain useful proteins, fibres, flavours and other compounds, but they are not always processed in a way that captures their full value.

Greencovery's technology aims to recover those compounds and convert them into ingredients that can be used in new food products.

The company says its mild separation technology can produce ingredients with a lower carbon footprint while creating additional value from materials that would otherwise have limited applications.

In other words, the startup is trying to move food production from a linear model — produce, process and discard — toward a more circular one.

Greencovery's Cocoa Opportunity

Cocoa is currently becoming one of Greencovery's most important commercial applications.

The company has already demonstrated its separation technology across several food side streams, including coffee, oil press cakes and nuts. Cocoa, however, is now moving toward commercial-scale production.

Greencovery is developing a process that can recover useful components from cocoa-processing side streams and convert them into ingredients for food manufacturers.

The company is initially focusing on three products:

• Cocoa fibre
• Cocoa extract
• Cocoa soluble fibre

These ingredients can potentially be used in different food applications while helping manufacturers respond to growing demand for natural ingredients, clean labels and products with reduced sugar.

Why Cocoa Upcycling Matters

Cocoa is a major global commodity, but its processing generates significant amounts of material that can still contain useful compounds.

At the same time, cocoa manufacturers are dealing with considerable volatility in raw-material prices.

That creates an opportunity for technologies that can recover additional value from materials already moving through the food-production system.

Greencovery's approach does not require creating an entirely new agricultural supply chain. Instead, it focuses on extracting additional value from existing industrial side streams.

That could make upcycling attractive from both a sustainability and commercial perspective.

A 1,000-Ton Production Target

Greencovery has already validated its initial commercial batches with key customers.

The company is now working with a strategic partner to scale its operations toward an initial capacity of 1,000 tons.

This represents an important transition for the startup.

Rather than remaining primarily focused on research and technology validation, Greencovery is moving toward industrial deployment and commercial production.

The next stage will be about demonstrating that the technology can operate reliably and economically at significantly larger volumes.

Building a Circular Cocoa Value Chain in North Holland

Greencovery's expansion is closely connected to the food-processing ecosystem in North Holland.

The region generates more than 350,000 tons of food-grade side streams annually, according to Greencovery's latest announcement.

The company sees this existing industrial infrastructure as an opportunity to build a more circular food system locally.

Zaandam, in particular, has been an important European food-processing and cocoa-trading hub for centuries.

Greencovery wants to add another layer to that ecosystem by processing valuable side streams locally and turning them into functional ingredients instead of sending them toward lower-value applications or disposal.

Meet Greencovery Founder Carlos Cabrera

Dr. Carlos Cabrera — Founder & Managing Director

Carlos Cabrera is the founder and Managing Director of Greencovery and has spent much of his career working on technologies that can recover valuable compounds from food-industry side streams.

Greencovery's own company history says Cabrera launched the company in 2018, taking technology developed during his PhD work at Delft University of Technology and bringing it toward commercial application.

His background combines scientific research with entrepreneurship.

Before launching Greencovery, Cabrera worked on the development of technologies designed to extract useful components from side streams. His focus has consistently been on finding ways to make food production more sustainable without sacrificing commercial viability.

On his LinkedIn profile, Cabrera describes his focus around building a sustainable and waste-free future through technical innovation.

His goal with Greencovery is not simply to reduce food waste, but to create a business model where waste reduction and economic value creation happen at the same time.

Juan Cajiao and the Early Greencovery Team

Juan Cajiao was also an early co-founder of Greencovery and played an important commercial role in the company's development.

FoodNavigator reported in 2020 that Carlos Cabrera and Juan Cajiao co-founded Greencovery with a shared interest in reducing food waste. Cajiao was identified at the time as the company's commercial director.

The early team combined scientific expertise with commercial experience, helping Greencovery move its technology beyond laboratory research and toward real food-industry applications.

Over time, the company has expanded its team with specialists across food science, process development, commercialisation and business development.

How Greencovery's Technology Works

At a high level, Greencovery's technology separates and purifies useful compounds from food-processing side streams.

The process is designed to be relatively mild so that valuable components can be recovered without unnecessarily damaging their functional properties.

The company works through several stages before an ingredient reaches commercial scale.

Proof of Concept

First, Greencovery tests whether a particular side stream can technically be converted into a useful ingredient.

This involves evaluating the material and determining what valuable compounds can be recovered.

Proof of Market

The next step is determining whether customers actually want the resulting ingredient.

Greencovery evaluates factors such as:

• Taste
• Functionality
• Nutritional properties
• Product applications
• Customer demand
• Potential buyers

Proof of Business

Finally, the company evaluates whether the process can work economically at scale.

This includes:

• Production costs
• Pricing
• Margins
• Supply-chain requirements
• Production location
• Commercial partnerships

Greencovery says this approach is designed to ensure that its technologies are not only technically feasible but also market-ready and commercially viable.

Beyond Cocoa

Although cocoa is currently becoming a major commercial focus, Greencovery's technology is not limited to cocoa.

The company has worked with side streams from several food-processing industries.

Its technology has been demonstrated across:

• Coffee
• Nuts
• Oil press cakes
• Soy/okara
• Other food-processing side streams

The company previously highlighted work involving okara, or soy pulp, where its technology was scaled to create functional protein and fibre ingredients.

This broader application potential could be important for Greencovery's long-term strategy.

If the same technological platform can be adapted to different food side streams, the company could potentially build multiple ingredient businesses from a common technology base.

Greencovery's Previous Funding

The latest €1 million investment is not the company's first funding milestone.

In 2022, Greencovery raised €500,000 from Brightlands Venture Partners to accelerate development and implementation of its separation and purification technology.

The company said the funding would help expand its customer base and scale its platform for recovering specialty ingredients from food-processing side streams.

Greencovery has also previously received investment from Oterap, a family investment fund focused on supporting more sustainable and circular approaches to food production.

The latest funding therefore represents another step in a longer journey from scientific development toward commercial-scale production.

Who Invested in the New €1M Round?

The latest €1 million round includes three main sources of capital.

ROM InWest

ROM InWest is a regional development organisation supporting innovation and economic development in North Holland.

For Greencovery, the investment is particularly relevant because of the company's plan to develop its cocoa upcycling operations in the region.

The startup says bringing ROM InWest into the round also connects it with North Holland's wider industrial network.

Brightlands Venture Partners

Brightlands Venture Partners (BVP) is an existing investor in Greencovery.

BVP previously invested in the company during its earlier €500,000 financing round and is continuing to support the startup as it moves toward commercial scale.

Private Investor

The latest financing also includes participation from a private investor.

Together, the investors are providing Greencovery with the capital needed to move its cocoa technology closer to industrial deployment.

A Further €3M Round Is Underway

The €1 million announced today is only the first part of Greencovery's latest financing strategy.

The company is currently working to close a further €3 million funding round.

According to the company, commitments have already been secured from both existing and new investors.

The additional capital is expected to fund:

• Full-scale commercial manufacturing
• Increased production capacity
• Ingredient supply at volume
• Further technology development
• Commercial expansion

If completed, the additional financing would bring a significant increase in the capital available to Greencovery as it moves from technology validation into industrial production.

Why the Funding Matters

For Greencovery, this funding is less about simply expanding the team or developing another laboratory prototype.

It represents a shift toward commercial-scale deployment.

The company has already spent years developing and testing its separation technology.

Now, the challenge is to demonstrate that the technology can operate consistently and profitably at industrial scale.

The planned 1,000-ton capacity is therefore an important milestone.

If successful, it could provide a foundation for Greencovery to expand its technology into additional food-processing side streams and markets.

The Bigger Food Upcycling Opportunity

The food industry is under increasing pressure to reduce waste while producing more efficiently.

At the same time, manufacturers are looking for ingredients that can help them respond to consumer demand for:

• Natural ingredients
• Cleaner labels
• Lower sugar
• Higher fibre
• Sustainable sourcing
• More efficient use of raw materials

Food upcycling sits directly at the intersection of these trends.

Rather than treating side streams purely as waste, companies can view them as another source of raw materials.

Greencovery is betting that this shift can create a new generation of food ingredients while reducing the environmental impact of food production.

From Waste Reduction to Value Creation

One of the most interesting aspects of Greencovery's model is that it does not frame sustainability as a cost alone.

The company's approach is based on the idea that food manufacturers can reduce waste and create new revenue or ingredient opportunities at the same time.

A side stream that previously had limited economic value can potentially become:

Food-processing side stream → separation → purified compound → functional ingredient → new food product

That circular model is at the centre of Greencovery's business.

What's Next for Greencovery?

The immediate priority is to scale its cocoa operations.

The company will focus on:

• Reaching approximately 1,000 tons of production capacity
• Scaling its cocoa fibre production
• Expanding cocoa extract production
• Developing cocoa soluble fibre
• Supplying ingredients to food manufacturers
• Closing the additional €3 million funding round
• Strengthening its industrial partnerships
• Exploring additional food side streams

The company is also continuing to develop its wider platform for recovering ingredients from food-industry side streams.

Final Takeaway

Greencovery is taking an increasingly important part of the food industry — its side streams — and looking at them as a source of opportunity rather than waste.

The Wageningen-based startup has now raised €1 million to bring its cocoa upcycling technology closer to industrial production, with a further €3 million round underway.

Its technology aims to turn cocoa side streams into cocoa fibre, cocoa extract and cocoa soluble fibre, giving food manufacturers new ingredient options while helping create a more circular food system.

Founded in 2018 by Carlos Cabrera, Greencovery has spent years developing the technology and validating its commercial potential.

The next phase will be about scale.

If Greencovery can successfully move its cocoa technology into large-scale production and demonstrate strong commercial demand, the same platform could potentially be applied across a much broader range of food side streams.

That could position the company not simply as a cocoa upcycling startup, but as part of a much larger shift toward circular, lower-waste food production.