Perth-based food technology company, Whole., has launched a Pre-Series A investor round, aiming to commercialise its proprietary WINX (Whole Ingredient Nutrient Extraction) platform, which transforms plant ingredients into functional food formats.
According to Food Innovation Australia Limited, Australian fruit and vegetable growers are missing out on sales of up to one million tonnes of produce that never makes it to market, estimated at up to $2.5 billion a year.
The WINX technology helps address this challenge, eliminating waste and maximising nutrition by creating whole food ingredients from food waste generated in the ‘paddock to plate’ value chain, as well as from traditional grains and pulses.
Co-founded by Nick Stamatiou, Ivan Gustavino, and Cedric Cross in 2020, Whole. has received global interest in its technology. The company has worked with leading global food and ingredient companies including Kagome, Kerry, and Noumi to validate the WINX platform across multiple ingredients and applications.
Whole. also partnered with Singapore-based Life3 Biotech in late 2022 to explore the feasibility of processing legumes in Western Australia to provide a high protein legume concentrate, which could be used to produce a range of plant-based protein ingredients and products for global food manufacturers.
The company secured $1.5 million in its 2023 seed funding round, including backing from Artesian Alternative Investments and the GRDC's GrainInnovate Fund, supporting technology validation and early commercial pathways. Now, the team is ready to take the next step, and is looking to partner with organisations who can support the next phase of scale, application and market expansion.
Whole. stated this includes food and beverage manufacturers looking to upgrade ingredients or product formats, organisations with underutilised agricultural or processing streams, and investors aligned to capital-efficient, category-creating food innovation. Venture capital firm, LvlUp Ventures, has already jumped on board.
The investment opportunity is described as offering partners access to a validated, zero-waste processing platform, the chance to co-develop new functional products, and pathways into premium nutrition markets using existing inputs. For investors, the opportunity sits at the intersection of sustainability, functional nutrition and scalable food systems, with clear routes to differentiated products, margin uplift, and global market relevance, initially across Australia and Asia-Pacific.
Whole. co-founder and CEO, Nick Stamatiou told Food & Drink Business that the company is raising capital to scale a fundamentally different model for food.
“At Whole., we believe the future of nutrition is not about extracting more from ingredients, but finally using more of what is already there. This raise is about taking WINX from proven industry validation into scaled commercial reality,” said Stamatiou.
“After years of working with major food and beverage groups, we’ve reached an important point of conviction: the technology works, the commercial need is real, and now it’s time to bring that value directly to market. This raise is about accelerating that next chapter.
“Whole. is building a future where more of every ingredient is utilised, more nutrition is retained, and less value is thrown away,” he said.
Enquiries are now open on AgriFutures growAG platform, online at growag.com.
