Noah's Farm, a food tech startup that recreates food taste with artificial intelligence (AI), said on Oct. 20 that it secured a pre-seed investment of 4 billion won from five domestic and overseas investors, including a Silicon Valley venture capital firm.
The round included Sazze Partners in Silicon Valley, Company K, and Tapas Media founder and CEO Kim Chang-won.
Noah's Farm is corporations that integrates bio, AI, and flavor chemistry technologies to develop "flavor factors." Flavor factors are key ingredients used to determine the taste and aroma of foods.
Noah's Farm CTO Kang Min-jun said, "Our in-house AI model 'N-Palette1' can generate molecular formulas that reproduce the tastes of vanilla, fat from specific cuts of meat, and certain fruits," adding, "Based on this, we can amplify flavors, replicate the same taste with cheaper raw materials, and add functionalities like 'zero calorie'."
Noah's Farm added that a blueberry-flavored ingredient developed with N-Palette1 showed very high taste similarity to real blueberries when evaluated with an electronic tongue (e-tongue) analysis device.
Co-founder and CEO Jang Young-jun is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Tapas Media, which was acquired by Kakao Entertainment in 2021 in a deal worth 600 billion won, and Riiid, an AI tutor corporations that grew to a valuation of 800 billion won. Co-founder and Director Kang Min-jun decided to co-found the company to apply AI-based bio-convergence technology to the flavor field while pursuing a Ph.D. at Seoul National University College of Medicine.
Jang Young-jun, CEO of Noah's Farm, said, "Across all industries, in the 'food market'—the largest and closest to everyday life—we will create a world where AI can freely reproduce desired tastes inexpensively."