Kokomodo and Cargill Partner Through EIT Food to Advance the Future of Sustainable Cacao Ingredients
Kokomodo, an agrifoodtech company pioneering cacao ingredients produced through cellular agriculture, has entered into a partnership with Cargill, one of the world’s largest food and ingredient manufacturers. The collaboration is cofinanced by EIT Food’s ProofofConcept CoFinancing Instrument, which enables startups and corporates to jointly validate and scale transformative agrifood innovations. EIT Food is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union.
Februry 2026| Kokomodo produces functional cacao ingredients that preserve the natural flavor and bioactive properties of cacao while ensuring year-round availability and sustainability. The collaboration will explore how cell-based cacao can integrate across multiple categories, including beverages, dairy, and confectionery. The collaboration will evaluate Kokomodo cacao’s functionality, sensory performance, and scalability in industrial settings, which is a key step toward establishing new, resilient, and innovative supply chains for one of the world’s most beloved ingredients.
"Partnering with Cargill through EIT Food’s platform marks an exciting step forward for Kokomodo, Our vision has always been to redefine cacao not only for its health benefits and functionality, but as a more sustainable, future-proof ingredient that can empower global food systems year-round. Working alongside one of the most established ingredient players in the world allows us to validate our technology at an industrial scale.”
Cacao is one of the world’s most economically and culturally significant ingredients, yet it faces major structural challenges, including deforestation, inconsistent yields, and labor‑related risks. In this context, cell‑based production offers a path to put in place more stable and transparent supply chains that ensure less environmental impact and can also identify new functional and nutritional possibilities for product developers.
The partnership is already underway and is expected to deliver functional validation results over the coming months. Beyond the technical scope, this collaboration reflects an evolving trend in the food industry, where established global companies are partnering with innovative startups to build a more efficient and more sustainable ingredients ecosystem.
“At EIT Food, our goal is to bring together the best of both worlds - agile startups and global industry leaders - to deliver real impact, said. By harnessing the collective power of our ecosystem -built on collaboration, transparency, and trust- at every stage, from research to investment and policy to production, we contribute in creating collaborations such as the one between Kokomodo and Cargill, and scale solutions faster to strengthen the resilience and innovation of the agrifood system.”
About Kokomodo
Kokomodo crafts real cacao through cellular agriculture, grown from selected non-GMO cell lines in clean, controlled environments. Our cacao preserves authentic flavor and indulgence while remaining free from deforestation, pesticides, and child labor. With customizable sensory and bioactive profiles for food, beverage, and supplement applications, we deliver sustainable, consistent, and climate-resilient cacao year-round.
www.thekokomodo.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/kokomodo
About EIT Food
EIT Food is shaping Europe’s food innovation ecosystem to build a healthy, sustainable and resilient food system. Supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, we empower innovators, invest in ideas and create space for science and research, industry, and policymakers to accelerate systemic change. By mobilising the collective power of our ecosystem, we tackle Europe’s most pressing food challenges, scaling innovation in regenerative agriculture, protein diversification, and agrifood biotech to build a sustainable future for people and the planet.
We are one of the ten innovation communities established by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), an independent EU body set up in 2008 to drive innovation and entrepreneurship across Europe. Find out more at www.eitfood.eu or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.