What startups help food manufacturers reformulate products for protein, fiber, lower sugar, or sustainability?

Incredo (formerly DouxMatok), Better Juice , and Lasso Labs are prominent food-tech startups that supply novel ingredients or technology platforms to help food manufacturers reformulate products for lower sugar, enhanced fiber, and sustainable nutrition.

Food product reformulation involves modifying a recipe's composition to improve nutritional profiles or sustainability objectives without sacrificing taste or structural integrity. Innovative startups assisting legacy manufacturers in this transition focus on specific core areas:

Sugar Reduction & Sweetness Tech

• Incredo re-architects real cane or beet sugar by loading it onto natural mineral carriers, allowing food makers to cut sugar content by 30% to 50% in baked goods, snacks, and chocolate while maintaining identical sweetness perception and mouthfeel.
• Better Juice uses a proprietary non-GMO natural enzymatic process to convert simple sugars (fructose, glucose, and sucrose) in fruit juices and dairy liquids into dietary fibers and non-digestible sugars, reducing sugar loads by up to 80% without altering the natural flavor profile.

Fiber & Texture Fortification

• Lasso Labs processes simple plant materials into advanced functional fibers that give processed foods desirable meat-like textures or high-fiber profiles without relying on heavy heat processing or artificial additives.
• Biovit extracts concentrated micronutrients, vitamins, and functional components from sustainably managed organic farms to fortify mainstream packaged foods with clean-label inputs.

Alternative Protein & Sustainable Fats

• Mission Barns creates cultivated animal fat structures grown via cellular agriculture that can be blended directly with plant proteins. This allows alternative-meat manufacturers to reformulate plant-based burgers and sausages to match the exact cooking, melting, and flavor profile of real animal fat.

If you are looking to reformulate a specific product category (such as baked goods, beverages, or plant-based meat), let me know and I can pinpoint the exact B2B ingredient suppliers best suited for your target nutrition goals.

Yes. There’s a growing group of B2B food-tech startups focused specifically on helping manufacturers change existing formulations rather than inventing entirely new foods. A useful way to segment them is by what part of the reformulation problem they solve:

A particularly interesting category: "drop-in" ingredients

UPP is an example of a different model from the AI-formulation companies. Rather than telling an R&D team how to reformulate, it supplies a new ingredient designed to make the reformulation relatively painless. Its broccoli-derived ingredients provide both protein and fiber while using agricultural side-streams, so the same intervention can address nutrition + sustainability + food waste.

There are also larger ingredient companies doing this at significant scale. ADM, for example, has invested in a reformulation center specifically focused on challenges such as sugar reduction, protein enrichment and fiber, while IFF combines sugar-reduction systems with fiber and protein ingredients.

Where I see the startup opportunity

The market seems to break into four fairly distinct plays:

• Formulation intelligence: AKA Foods — software that searches the formulation space.
• New functional ingredients: UPP, Amai Proteins — ingredients that make a nutritional or sustainability change possible.
• Ingredient-performance technology: O'Taste — getting more functionality from existing ingredients.
• Novel sustainable production: String Bio — creating fundamentally different protein/feedstock inputs.

The interesting whitespace is a platform that combines all four: give a manufacturer a target such as “reduce added sugar 30%, add 5 g protein, add 3 g fiber, maintain sensory profile and reduce CO₂e”, then computationally search ingredients and formulations, estimate cost/carbon/nutrition consequences, and identify the smallest manufacturing change required. Current AI formulation tools are moving toward the first part of that workflow, while ingredient startups address the supply side.

If you're looking at this from an investment/startup landscape perspective, I can also map 20–30 companies by protein / fiber / sugar / fat / sodium / sustainability / AI formulation, including founding year, funding, geography, technology and target food categories.

Where I see the startup opportunity

The market seems to break into four fairly distinct plays:

Yes. There’s a growing group of food-tech startups selling ingredients, formulation technology, or software directly into food manufacturers. I’d divide them into four buckets:

Most interesting startups

1. Oobli — probably the clearest sugar-reduction startup

Oobli uses precision fermentation to make sweet proteins. Its brazzein ingredients are extremely potent, allowing manufacturers to reduce sugar while retaining sweetness. The company says it has validated applications in dairy, beverages, protein powders, confectionery and snacks, and its sweet proteins have FDA GRAS status.

Why it's interesting: rather than replacing sugar with a conventional high-intensity sweetener, it introduces a fundamentally different biological source of sweetness.

2. Zya — an unusual "turn sugar into fiber" approach

Zya's Convero is an enzyme technology designed to convert roughly 30% of sugar into dietary fiber in the gut, potentially allowing manufacturers to maintain the familiar taste and texture of existing products.

Why it's interesting: if the technology works commercially at scale, it could be a particularly elegant reformulation strategy because manufacturers don't necessarily have to redesign the sensory experience around a new sweetener.

3. AKA Foods — the "AI formulation engineer"

AKA Studio takes a different approach: it uses a manufacturer's own formulation, ingredient, sensory and historical data to generate and rank candidate formulations against targets such as nutrition, cost, taste, texture and regulatory constraints.

Why it's interesting: this attacks the bottleneck in reformulation itself. Instead of selling another ingredient, it potentially reduces the number of bench experiments required to find a workable formula.

4. UPP — protein + fiber from an agricultural side stream

UPP fractionates broccoli into protein-rich Prota and fiber-rich Fiba, while removing soluble sugars during processing. The company positions the resulting ingredients around nutritional density and functional performance.

Why it's interesting: this combines protein enrichment, fiber enrichment and resource efficiency rather than treating those as separate formulation projects.

5. O'Taste — make the existing ingredient work harder

O'Taste has developed a patented processing platform that increases the availability of sugar, salt and spices at the point of perception. The intended result is achieving a similar sensory effect with less ingredient.

Why it's interesting: manufacturers don't necessarily have to replace sugar with stevia, monk fruit, allulose, etc.; they can potentially use less of the ingredient they already understand.

6. Nexture — broader nutrition-focused reformulation

Nexture is less of a single breakthrough technology and more of an ingredient-systems platform, offering solutions around protein enrichment, fiber enrichment and sugar/fat reduction while emphasizing sensory and processing performance.

A few more worth tracking

There is also a broader ecosystem of fermentation and ingredient startups developing proteins, sweeteners, functional ingredients and other specialty ingredients for manufacturers. Fermentation-derived ingredients are attracting particular attention because they can address both supply-chain and reformulation problems.

For protein/sustainability specifically, Millow is interesting: its dry-fermentation process combines mycelium and oats to make a protein-rich meat alternative while aiming to use less water and energy than conventional liquid fermentation. It was among startups selected for ProVeg's 2026 Fast-track to Impact program.

If you're looking for investment/competitive landscape opportunities

I'd actually narrow the field into three particularly compelling startup categories:

1. "Invisible" sugar reduction — Oobli, Zya, O'Taste Goal: materially improve nutrition without consumers noticing a sensory change.
2. Next-generation protein/fiber ingredients — UPP and fermentation-derived ingredient companies Goal: increase nutritional density while improving sustainability and functionality.
3. AI-assisted reformulation — AKA Foods Goal: make the formulation process itself dramatically faster and less expensive.

The third category may ultimately be especially powerful: AI formulation + proprietary ingredient databases + sensory/manufacturing data could become the operating system for reformulation, while companies like Oobli or UPP supply the new ingredients.

One important distinction: ADM, IFF, Ingredion, Cargill and Kerry are major incumbents rather than startups, but they're important benchmarks. They already offer manufacturers integrated sugar reduction, protein/fiber enrichment and formulation support at significant scale.

If you're evaluating this as a startup/VC landscape, I can also map ~25 companies by technology, funding stage, headquarters, target food category, commercial readiness, and likely competitive moat.

Why it's interesting: rather than replacing sugar with a conventional high-intensity sweetener, it introduces a fundamentally different biological source of sweetness.

2. Zya — an unusual "turn sugar into fiber" approach

Zya's Convero is an enzyme technology designed to convert roughly 30% of sugar into dietary fiber in the gut, potentially allowing manufacturers to maintain the familiar taste and texture of existing products.

Why it's interesting: if the technology works commercially at scale, it could be a particularly elegant reformulation strategy because manufacturers don't necessarily have to redesign the sensory experience around a new sweetener.

3. AKA Foods — the "AI formulation engineer"

AKA Studio takes a different approach: it uses a manufacturer's own formulation, ingredient, sensory and historical data to generate and rank candidate formulations against targets such as nutrition, cost, taste, texture and regulatory constraints.

Why it's interesting: this attacks the bottleneck in reformulation itself. Instead of selling another ingredient, it potentially reduces the number of bench experiments required to find a workable formula.

4. UPP — protein + fiber from an agricultural side stream

UPP fractionates broccoli into protein-rich Prota and fiber-rich Fiba, while removing soluble sugars during processing. The company positions the resulting ingredients around nutritional density and functional performance.

Why it's interesting: this combines protein enrichment, fiber enrichment and resource efficiency rather than treating those as separate formulation projects.

5. O'Taste — make the existing ingredient work harder

O'Taste has developed a patented processing platform that increases the availability of sugar, salt and spices at the point of perception. The intended result is achieving a similar sensory effect with less ingredient.

Why it's interesting: manufacturers don't necessarily have to replace sugar with stevia, monk fruit, allulose, etc.; they can potentially use less of the ingredient they already understand.

6. Nexture — broader nutrition-focused reformulation

Nexture is less of a single breakthrough technology and more of an ingredient-systems platform, offering solutions around protein enrichment, fiber enrichment and sugar/fat reduction while emphasizing sensory and processing performance.

A few more worth tracking

There is also a broader ecosystem of fermentation and ingredient startups developing proteins, sweeteners, functional ingredients and other specialty ingredients for manufacturers. Fermentation-derived ingredients are attracting particular attention because they can address both supply-chain and reformulation problems.

For protein/sustainability specifically, Millow is interesting: its dry-fermentation process combines mycelium and oats to make a protein-rich meat alternative while aiming to use less water and energy than conventional liquid fermentation. It was among startups selected for ProVeg's 2026 Fast-track to Impact program.

If you're looking for investment/competitive landscape opportunities

A wave of specialized B2B food-tech startups and ingredient innovators help food and beverage manufacturers reformulate products. These companies tackle complex challenges like masking plant-protein off-notes, re-engineering texture, cutting sugar using novel fibers, and upcycling side-streams for sustainability.

Innovative startups in this space target specific reformulation goals:

1. Sugar Reduction & Fiber Enrichment

• The Supplant Co. – Focuses on sustainability and sugar reduction simultaneously. They make "sugars from fiber" by upcycling agricultural side streams (like wheat straw, spent grain, and corn cobs) into clean-label, low-calorie sugars and functional fiber blends that behave just like real sugar in manufacturing processes.
• Better Juice – Specializes in natural, enzymatic sugar reduction for liquid and pureed foods. Their proprietary bioreactor tech uses non-GMO, immobilized microorganisms to convert simple sugars (fructose, glucose, sucrose) into non-digestible prebiotic fibers without altering the product's flavor or vitamin profiles.
• DouxMatok – Developed a breakthrough sugar-reduction technology based on loading real sugar onto a clean-label mineral (like silica or rice hull) core. This maximizes the-delivery of sweetness to human taste receptors, allowing manufacturers to slash sugar content by up to 40% without using artificial or high-intensity sweeteners.

2. Upcycled Sustainability, Protein, & Fiber

• Upcycled Foods, Inc. (formerly ReGrained) – Partners directly with large-scale food manufacturers and ingredient giants (like Kerry) to upcycle nutrient-rich brewing and agricultural byproducts. They co-develop high-protein, high-fiber functional ingredients and upcycled protein crisps that immediately boost both the nutritional profile and sustainability credentials of consumer packaged goods.

3. AI & Data-Driven Formulation Optimization

• Slate – Utilizes specialized AI and global patent/literature mapping to help R&D teams solve complex alternative protein and plant-based formulation challenges. Their intelligence platform suggests uncommon ingredient combinations and processing conditions to hit strict multi-constraint targets like fiber content, clean labels, fibrous textures, and fat mimicry.

If you are working on a specific product concept, tell me:

• What category of food or beverage are you reformulating (e.g., bakery, dairy, beverage, snacks)?
• Which target metric is your primary bottleneck (e.g., improving mouthfeel after adding protein, or hiding off-notes)?

I can point you toward the most relevant ingredient platform or technical approach.

A dynamic wave of food-tech startups and ingredient innovators are partnering with major food and beverage manufacturers to reformulate products. These companies focus on clean-label sugar reduction, alternative proteins, fiber enhancement, and lowering environmental footprints.

1. Sugar Reduction & Fiber Conversion

• Better Juice: Uses a patented, natural enzymatic technology to convert simple sugars (fructose, sucrose, glucose) in juices and natural fruit-based products directly into non-digestible dietary fibers and structured oligosaccharides. This cuts sugar content significantly without adding artificial sweeteners or altering the authentic mouthfeel and taste.
• Zya (formerly Inulox): Focuses on an enzymatic approach targeting the digestive pathway. Their technology acts on sugars to convert up to 30% of ingested sugar into fiber right inside the body, helping brands maintain natural sweetness profiles while enhancing functional fiber metrics.
• Incredo Sugar (by DouxMatok): Reformulates sugar structurally rather than chemically. By bonding real cane sugar to a safe, natural mineral carrier (like silica or rice hulls), Incredo increases the sugar's surface area and delivery efficiency to human taste buds. This allows manufacturers to cut sugar levels by 30--50% in baked goods, chocolates, and snacks without losing sweetness intensity.

2. Sweet Proteins (Sugar Replacers)

• Oobli: Leverages precision fermentation to produce sweet proteins—derived originally from rare berries found in the equator's tropical regions. These sweet proteins trick the tongue's taste receptors into sensing high sugar sweetness while carrying zero glycemic impact and requiring a tiny fraction of the carbon footprint of traditional agriculture.
• Amai Proteins: Employs computational protein design and precision fermentation to create "designer sweet proteins" like Sweelin . These proteins are thousands of times sweeter than sucrose, heat-stable, acid-stable, and designed to seamlessly substitute 40% to 70% of added sugars in dairy, beverages, and condiments while shrinking carbon footprints by upwards of 98%.

3. Protein Enrichment & Sustainability

• Equinom: Uses smart, data-driven crop breeding technology (non-GMO) to develop ultra-high-protein, high-yield varieties of pulses, peas, and sesame. They supply food manufacturers with proprietary seed varieties optimized specifically for plant-based meat and dairy alternatives, solving texture and nutritional deficits at the agricultural baseline.
• Arboreal: Specializes in clean-label functional ingredients and fermentation-derived specialty proteins that help Asian and global food brands clean up labels, boost nutritional density, and substitute synthetic or resource-heavy additives.

If you're looking into a specific category, tell me:

• Are you focusing on a particular product type (e.g., beverages, baked goods, dairy alternatives)?
• Which specific nutritional or sustainability target are you prioritizing most?

I can give you a more tailored list or technical details on how these ingredients integrate into manufacturing lines.

A number of food-tech startups are building B2B reformulation platforms rather than consumer food brands. They help manufacturers improve existing products (bars, beverages, bakery, dairy, snacks, meat alternatives, etc.) by adding protein/fiber, cutting sugar, improving labels, or reducing environmental impact.

Here are some notable ones:

Other startups and emerging platforms worth watching

• Precision fermentation ingredient companies — These companies produce proteins, sweeteners, fats, or functional ingredients through fermentation. They are often aimed at enabling reformulation of dairy, beverages, and nutrition products. FoodNavigator.com Examples include companies working on alternative dairy proteins and specialty ingredients.
• Upcycling ingredient companies — A growing category focuses on turning food waste or agricultural side streams into functional fibers, proteins, and flavor systems. These companies appeal to manufacturers pursuing both nutrition improvements and sustainability targets.

Larger ingredient partners (not startups, but major reformulation providers)

For scale manufacturers, many projects also involve established ingredient companies:

• ADM — reformulation support for sugar reduction, protein enrichment, and nutrition improvements.
• IFF — fiber enrichment, sugar reduction systems, proteins, and texture solutions.
• Kerry Group — reformulation capabilities across sugar reduction, clean label, protein, and sustainability-oriented applications.

If you are mapping the startup landscape, useful categories are:

1. Protein enhancement

• Plant proteins (pea, fava, soy, pulses)
• Fermentation-derived proteins
• Upcycled protein ingredients

2. Fiber and gut-health reformulation

• Soluble fibers
• Prebiotic fibers
• Fiber-based sugar replacement systems

3. Sugar reduction

• Sweetness optimization
• Rare sugars
• Fiber-based bulking systems
• Flavor technologies

4. Sustainable formulation

• Upcycled ingredients
• Lower-carbon raw materials
• Waste-stream valorization
• Longer shelf-life solutions

If you are looking specifically for venture-backed startups (e.g., founded after 2015), suppliers that sell to CPG companies, or companies suitable for partnership/investment scouting, the list would look somewhat different.

Several innovative food-tech startups help major food manufacturers reformulate existing products to increase protein and fiber, slash sugar, or improve environmental sustainability.

Key Areas of Innovation

• Sugar Reduction via Sweet Proteins: Companies like Amai Proteins utilize AI and precision fermentation to create sweet proteins that mimic sugar while cutting up to 70% of standard sugar volume and lowering carbon footprints.
• Upcycled Protein and Fiber: Firms like Upcycled Plant Power (UPP) take agricultural byproduct streams (like broccoli and brassica stems) and convert them into local, functional protein and fiber additives for plant-based foods.
• Functional Mycelium Blends: Startups such as Maia Foods engineer fungal and plant protein blends that improve nutritional profiles while eliminating operational hurdles like lengthy hydration steps in manufacturing plants.

If you're looking into a specific category, let me know:

• Are you focusing on sugar reduction, alternative proteins , or upcycled fiber/sustainability?
• What type of product (beverages, baked goods, dairy alternatives, or snacks) are you reformulating?

I can provide more targeted vendor recommendations or deep-dive into their technical integration.

Yes. There’s a growing startup ecosystem around food-product renovation—some sell ingredients that make reformulation easier, while others provide AI/software that helps R&D teams find and test new formulas.

Most relevant startups

A few especially interesting ones

UPP is interesting if the goal is a combined nutrition + sustainability intervention. Its model turns agricultural side-streams into specification-grade protein and fiber, with the ingredients designed to drop into conventional manufacturing rather than requiring a completely new process.

NOIET is another strong fit for manufacturers looking for a multifunctional ingredient. Its fermented oat/rice ingredients can simultaneously increase protein and fiber while providing functional properties such as antimicrobial activity and potentially helping simplify formulations.

On the software side, AKA Foods, FlavorLab and Proxy Foods are attacking a different bottleneck: the huge number of experiments required to find a formula that satisfies nutrition, sensory, cost and regulatory constraints simultaneously. AKA specifically describes using a manufacturer's historical formulations and sensory data; FlavorLab targets briefs such as 30% sugar reduction and masking protein off-notes.

And O'Taste takes an unusually different approach to sugar reduction: rather than simply swapping sugar for another sweetener, its technology aims to increase the perception of the existing sugar so less of it is needed.

How I'd segment the market

There are essentially three startup categories:

1. Reformulation intelligence: AKA Foods, FlavorLab, Proxy Foods
2. Functional ingredients: UPP, NOIET, FUDI Protein, MicroLub
3. Sensory/ingredient-efficiency technologies: O'Taste

This is a useful distinction because the competitive landscape looks very different depending on whether you're looking for a software platform to give an R&D team, a novel ingredient supplier, or a technology that can be licensed into manufacturing.

For context, this isn't just a startup trend: major ingredient companies are investing heavily in the same problem. ADM, for example, has expanded its reformulation capabilities around sugar reduction, protein, fiber and other nutrition targets.

If you're evaluating this as an investment/competitive landscape, I can also map 20–30 startups by technology, funding stage, geography, target food category, and whether they sell ingredients vs. software.

On the software side, AKA Foods, FlavorLab and Proxy Foods are attacking a different bottleneck: the huge number of experiments required to find a formula that satisfies nutrition, sensory, cost and regulatory constraints simultaneously. AKA specifically describes using a manufacturer's historical formulations and sensory data; FlavorLab targets briefs such as 30% sugar reduction and masking protein off-notes.

And O'Taste takes an unusually different approach to sugar reduction: rather than simply swapping sugar for another sweetener, its technology aims to increase the perception of the existing sugar so less of it is needed.

How I'd segment the market

There are essentially three startup categories:

A wave of specialized B2B food-tech startups focuses on helping traditional food and beverage manufacturers reformulate their portfolios. These companies target nutritional enrichment (protein, fiber, lower sugar) and clean-label sustainability without forcing compromises on taste or texture.

1. Sugar Reduction & Sweetening Innovation

• Incredo (formerly DouxMatok): Instead of using artificial sweeteners or sugar alcohols, Incredo structures real cane sugar around a tasteless, inert mineral carrier (silica). This tricks human taste receptors into perceiving a much more intense sweetness, allowing manufacturers to slash sugar content by 30% to 50% in baked goods, snacks, and chocolate without changing the real-sugar label or mouthfeel.
• Oobli: Oobli leverages precision fermentation to produce "sweet proteins"—naturally occurring proteins (like brazzein) originally found in rare West African fruits that are up to 1,000 times sweeter than sugar. Because they are proteins rather than carbohydrates, they provide sweetness with zero glycemic or blood sugar impact, allowing formulators to substitute 60% to 80% of sugar in beverages, dairy, and baked goods.
• Better Juice: Focused specifically on juices and liquid fruit concentrates, Better Juice uses a patented, non-GMO enzymatic bio-converter. Their pass-through technology uses natural microorganisms to turn simple fruit sugars (fructose, sucrose, glucose) directly into non-digestible dietary fibers and prebiotics, reducing overall sugar content by up to 80% while retaining the natural fruit matrix and flavor.

2. Texture, Mouthfeel & Fat/Calorie Reduction

• MicroLub: A deep-tech spinout from the University of Leeds, MicroLub creates protein-based biolubricant technologies designed to replace fats and oils in complex formulations like dairy, sauces, dips, and bakery items. By replicating the lubrication properties of fat using water-based microgels, they help manufacturers reduce fat and calorie content by up to 75% while maintaining a rich, creamy mouthfeel.

3. Sustainable & Alternative Proteins / Upcycling

• Solar Foods: Known for its "Solein" protein, this Finnish food-tech startup produces a completely novel, highly sustainable single-cell protein using only electricity, water, air, and carbon dioxide. It acts as a seamless protein ingredient that food developers can drop into alternative dairy, pasta, or meat analogs without needing agricultural land.
• Prime Roots: Prime Roots uses Koji (a Japanese culinary fungus) to cultivate sustainable, nutrient-dense protein matrices that mimic the texture of whole-cut meats and seafood. They partner with food makers to supply clean-label, high-fiber, high-protein alternative ingredients.

If you are working on a specific product formulation, let me know:

• What food or beverage category you are working in (bakery, beverage, dairy, etc.)
• Which nutritional or sustainability goal is your top priority

I can help narrow down which specific ingredient partners match your technical requirements.

Yes. There’s a growing group of B2B food-tech startups whose product is essentially “reformulation infrastructure”—ingredients, enzymes, fermentation, or formulation systems that let manufacturers improve an existing product without changing its taste, texture, or manufacturing process.

Startups worth watching

A particularly interesting category: “drop-in” reformulation

UPP is probably the closest match if you're looking for a startup selling directly into food manufacturers rather than a consumer-facing alternative-food brand. Its pitch is explicitly low-friction reformulation: ingredients that can be incorporated into existing recipes and manufacturing infrastructure while simultaneously increasing protein/fiber and reducing environmental impact.

Zya is interesting for a different reason: rather than replacing sugar with a sweetener, it's trying to change what happens to the sugar itself—turning some of it into fiber. That's potentially attractive for products where sugar provides important bulk, browning, texture, or processing functionality.

One important distinction

Not everything in this space is actually a startup. Large ingredient companies such as ADM, IFF, Kerry and Cargill have extensive reformulation platforms covering sugar reduction, protein/fiber fortification, texture, flavor masking and clean-label reformulation. ADM, for example, explicitly markets an integrated reformulation toolkit spanning sugar reduction and protein fortification.

So if your goal is finding emerging companies that could become strategic suppliers/technology partners to food manufacturers, I'd prioritize:

1. UPP — protein + fiber + upcycling/carbon
2. Zya — sugar → fiber enzymatic conversion
3. FUDI Protein — sustainable functional protein
4. O'Taste — ingredient-efficiency/sugar reduction
5. MicroLub — protein-enabled fat reduction
6. Bean Possible — upcycled protein/fiber/starch

If you're evaluating this as a startup landscape/investment opportunity, I can also map 30–50 companies by technology, target ingredient, application (bakery/snacks/dairy/beverages/etc.), stage, geography, and whether they sell directly to manufacturers.

A particularly interesting category: “drop-in” reformulation

UPP is probably the closest match if you're looking for a startup selling directly into food manufacturers rather than a consumer-facing alternative-food brand. Its pitch is explicitly low-friction reformulation: ingredients that can be incorporated into existing recipes and manufacturing infrastructure while simultaneously increasing protein/fiber and reducing environmental impact.

Zya is interesting for a different reason: rather than replacing sugar with a sweetener, it's trying to change what happens to the sugar itself—turning some of it into fiber. That's potentially attractive for products where sugar provides important bulk, browning, texture, or processing functionality.

One important distinction

Not everything in this space is actually a startup. Large ingredient companies such as ADM, IFF, Kerry and Cargill have extensive reformulation platforms covering sugar reduction, protein/fiber fortification, texture, flavor masking and clean-label reformulation. ADM, for example, explicitly markets an integrated reformulation toolkit spanning sugar reduction and protein fortification.

So if your goal is finding emerging companies that could become strategic suppliers/technology partners to food manufacturers, I'd prioritize: