UAE-based KBW Ventures, has participated in the $6.2 million pre-Series A funding round for Singapore-based TurtleTree Labs, a biotechnology company that uses technology to create real milk from animal cells.

Other investors participating in this round include Green Monday Ventures, Eat Beyond Global and Verso Capital.

TurtleTree Labs is the world's first milk company using cell cultivation to create the full nutritional content of milk using just mammary cells, with no animal needed. The end product is the same as human breast milk and cow milk and will be sold as a food product.  

The biotech startup will use the funds to accelerate research and production of functional, bioactive proteins and complex sugars found in human milk. It has offices in San Francisco and Singapore.

KBW Ventures also participated in the company’s seed round funding round it raised earlier this year.

“The vision of TurtleTree Labs is to create a truly sustainable and cruelty-free food system,” said Max Rye, chief strategist of TurtleTree Labs. “We are grateful to have the support of leading investors from every corner of the world.”  

“TurtleTree Labs’ groundbreaking technology, which allowed our company to win The Liveability Challenge and Entrepreneurship World Cup, has certainly attracted interest from a global and diverse panel of investors and customers,” said Fengru Lin, CEO of TurtleTree Labs.

Additionally, KBW founder Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, will join TurtleTree Labs as an advisor. In his role, Prince Khaled will shape new market growth plans, lend his expertise in the alternative protein and food tech spheres, and liaise closely with the founding team on other areas of the business. 

“TurtleTree Labs represents the spirit and impact of the Entrepreneurship World Cup where they emerged from a pool of 175,000 registrants from 200 countries,” said Ana Maria Torres, director for the Entrepreneurship World Cup. “This investment — and the continued support it will receive from a global network of ecosystem leaders — provides them with an opportunity to scale in a rapidly-changing industry while addressing an extensive global need.”