Global specialty ingredients provider Ingredion (NYSE: INGR), will lead a Series A funding round for Better Juice, Ltd., a food-tech startup offering unique sugar-reduction solutions. The partnership is expected to help fast-track penetration of the technology into the U.S. juice market and beyond.

Better Juice’s technology removes simple sugars in juice-based beverages, concentrates and other natural sugar-containing liquids. The company developed an enzymatic technology, which converts sugars into non-digestible compounds, such as dietary fibers and non-digestible sugars, while maintaining the natural profile of vitamins, minerals and organic acids in the final product.

Ingredion is leading the funding through its venture investment arm Ingredion Ventures. “The Better Juice technology adds a completely new dimension to our portfolio of sugar reduction solutions for food and beverage brands on a mission to meet increased consumer demand for less sugar,” said Nate Yates, sugar reduction business leader at Ingredion. “This technology also provides manufacturers with more options to successfully reduce sugar without compromising on great taste or nutrition.”

“This important partnership step is truly exciting,” said Gali Yarom, co-founder and co-CEO of Better Juice. “It dovetails perfectly with the Better Juice strategy to penetrate the North American market. Ingredion was impressed by our non-GMO technology, and its uses in a wide variety of applications. This move will open doors to leading food and beverage companies seeking sugar-reduction solutions for their products.”

The company’s clean-label conversion process applies proprietary beads composed of non-GMO microorganisms which produce enzymes. These enzymes convert the juice’s composition of fruit sugars including sucrose, glucose, and fructose into better-for-you prebiotic fibers and other non-digestible molecules. This enables sugar reduction by 30-80%, according to the company.

“This alliance will accelerate our go-to-market journey,” said Eran Blachinsky, PhD, co-founder and co-CEO of Better Juice. “Ingredion’s capital support will allow us to extend the technology to other liquids with natural sources of sugar, such as milk, beer, and wine.”

The deal with Ingredion follows Better Juice’s partnership with GEA Group, one of the largest suppliers of food processing technology.

Better Juice was founded in 2018 by a team of biochemists and microbiologists from industry and from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem with the aim of helping beverage manufacturers produce better-for-you, lower-sugar fruit juice. Their technology has accrued  several patents, The company was initially funded and supported by The Kitchen Hub, Strauss Group’s food-tech incubator, and has raised $8 million in seed-round investments. Better Juice now has an advanced plant set up to fully serve its clients.

Better Juice said its operations have advanced to commercial scale in the U.S. In recent years, it demonstrated its proof of concept in collaboration with juice manufacturers in the U.S and Asia. These companies are now positioned to progress to the next stage of commercialization. Better Juice is now fully prepped for market entry, with a capacity to process 250 million liters of sugar-reduced juice per year.

Since 2022, the groundbreaking GEA Better Juice Sugar Converter Skid has been included in GEA’s test center in Ahaus, Germany. Better Juice collaborates with GEA for manufacturing the bioreactor, and together they install the technology in customers’ facilities.

“Better Juice has achieved important milestones in the past two years and has positioned itself as the leading company for reducing simple sugars from natural sources,” said Amir Zaidman, vice president of The Kitchen Hub. “The timing is perfect for serving the rapidly expanding trend of consumers striving to cut down on simple sugars in their diet.”