
Alternative Protein Solutions Database
Discover ideas for new startups, commercial ventures and products, research projects, ecosystem support, and investment opportunities for plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-derived proteins.
Opportunity | Production platform | Solution category | Value chain segment | Technology sector | Maturity level |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Production process innovations for fiber formation and improved plant protein texturization
Fibers from techniques like electrospinning, jet spinning, or blow spinning may be able to impart a desirable texture to a given product. |
|
Commercial Research | End Products Production R&D | End product formulation & manufacturing | 2 – Early adoption |
Coordination among investors with alternative protein industry-specific expertise
Investors specializing in alternative proteins should be leveraged to educate the broader investment community through coalitions, syndicated deals, and co-investments with industry-agnostic investors, and spearhead efforts to facilitate later-stage funding… |
|
Commercial Ecosystem | Investment | 2 – Early adoption | |
“Rainbow roll 2.0” as a showcase product for cultivated seafood
Thin sheets of cultivated fish for layering on the outside of maki rolls and other sushi products could be an attractive market-entry commercial product. Producing thin sheets of tissue is… |
|
Commercial | End Products | End product formulation & manufacturing | 0 – Complete whitespace |
Microbial strain-development contract research organizations for alternative protein applications
While emerging fermentation-derived ingredient companies often optimize their strain’s productivity in-house, it may be more efficacious for startups to engage contract research organizations with both deep microbial strain development expertise… |
|
Commercial Ecosystem Research | R&D | Host strain development | |
Guaranteed offtake contracts for products and ingredients
Guaranteed offtake agreements, where buyers commit to purchase a volume of product, can help secure loans for infrastructure and other high-cost projects. |
|
Commercial Ecosystem | End Products Investment Production | End product formulation & manufacturing | 1 – Inception |
Expanding private label plant-based offerings
Brands, dedicated private labelers, and co-manufacturers can take advantage of the private labeling opportunity, and would benefit from developing a wide range of products to fit every category and access… |
|
Commercial | Business Services Distribution Channels End Products Production | End product formulation & manufacturing | 2 – Early adoption |
Plants as a recombinant protein expression platform for functional food ingredients
Crop plants used as recombinant protein production hosts could offer benefits of minimal processing, cheaper equipment, and fewer downstream purification costs. |
|
Commercial Research | Production R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs | Crop development Ingredient optimization | 2 – Early adoption |
Dedicated broker or exchange for plant-based B2B sales
Opportunity exists for a broker, marketplace, directory, or other exchange platform to facilitate B2B sales of plant-based foods as ingredients to manufacturers of frozen and prepared foods. |
|
Commercial | Business Services Distribution Channels | 1 – Inception | |
Next-generation plant-based turkey products
There has been little in the way of publicly-announced R&D or commercial efforts to develop the next generation of tasty and affordable plant-based turkey products. There is room for innovation… |
|
Commercial | End Products | End product formulation & manufacturing | 1 – Inception |
Expanded product development in plant-based meat snacks
Plant-based meat snacks could tap into underlying trends in snacks replacing meals and increased consumer interest in high-protein, low-sugar foods. Product innovation is needed to match the taste, price, and… |
|
Commercial | Demand Generation End Products Production | End product formulation & manufacturing | 2 – Early adoption |
Get involved
If you’d like to fund a research project, work on any of these solutions, share information about related efforts that are already underway, or elevate new ideas for advancing the alternative protein industry, we’d love to hear from you!

Explore key innovation priorities
Review commercial whitespaces, research gaps, technological needs, and investment priorities at each stage of the alternative protein value chain.
How we built this

Full report
Delve into the full report on the motivation, methodology, rationale, and key findings and recommendations of the Solutions initiative.

Futures wheels analysis
Explore our framework for uncovering second-order or third-order consequences and implications of hypothetical future scenarios to support better decision-making in the present.

Future-proofing
Discover key findings from GFI’s premortem analysis of potential threats to the widespread adoption of alternative proteins, including strategies to avoid or mitigate the most pressing risks.