NuCicer, a plant-protein innovation company reimagining the humble chickpea, has secured $11.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Rhapsody Venture Partners, with participation from Leaps by Bayer, Illumina Ventures, Better Ventures, Stray Dog Capital, and a leading global food company. Under the leadership of CEO and founder Kathryn Cook, NuCicer is accelerating its mission to provide sustainable, nutritious, and scalable protein alternatives for the future of food.

High-Protein Chickpeas: Nature Meets Precision

NuCicer uses advanced breeding techniques to produce chickpeas with up to 35% protein, compared to the 21% typical in commodity varieties. These enhanced chickpeas also offer high fiber, reduced fat, and mature 10–20 days earlier - boosting yield predictability while lowering the need for chemical desiccants.

By turning naturally nutrient-rich crops into functional ingredients, NuCicer enables food brands to deliver protein and fiber enrichment without resorting to highly processed isolates - aligning with the clean-label movement.

Currently active in field trials across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, NuCicer has already planted over 2,500 acres in 2025, with plans to scale tenfold by 2026.

Designing Trust Through Ingredient Infrastructure

NuCicer isn’t just breeding chickpeas - they’re building invisible infrastructure for ethical protein systems. Too often, food-tech startups chase direct-to-consumer products while skipping the structural bottlenecks: supply consistency, farmer trust, yield variability, and ingredient transparency. NuCicer attacked those constraints head-on, aligning biology and process design to make high-protein chickpeas both scalable and low-friction for end-users.

That’s a powerful playbook for founders: solving infrastructure-level problems - even when they're not flashy - creates stickiness that outlasts trends. Build trust through ingredient dependability, not marketing hype. When downstream users assume your source exists and delivers reliably, your switch cost becomes operational pain, not a brand choice. This layered approach to defensibility often defines category leaders in food and beyond.

Strategic Investors Back a New Era in Sustainable Agriculture

Rhapsody Venture Partners leads the Series A with deep experience in agri-innovation. Leaps by Bayer brings global food-system insights, while Illumina Ventures underscores NuCicer’s tech-forward approach to breeding. Backers like Better Ventures and Stray Dog Capital signal confidence in long-term, impact-driven growth.

Morrison & Foerster also played a key role, advising on the round - highlighting both legal sophistication and market confidence in NuCicer’s scalability.

Nutrient-Dense, Climate-Forward, and Farmer-Friendly

This high-protein variety aligns with sustainability trends while offering real agronomic benefits. As a grower in Montana notes, these chickpeas build resilient soil, reduce input costs, and perform better under weather variability. That dual advantage - nutritional and operational - strengthens adoption across supply chains.

Ongoing studies show chickpeas contribute significantly to nutrient intake - fiber, potassium, iron, and folate - often outperforming grains and delivering better mineral absorption. It’s a win for both consumer health and environmental stewardship.

Scaling Up: From Acreage to Global Impact

With the Series A cash, NuCicer plans to:

• Expand breeding and field trial programs globally
  
• Deepen partnerships with food brands and agriculture co-ops
  
• Scale processing and supply chain infrastructure
  
• Support licensing and ingredient commercialization across industries
  

This operational leverage turns chickpea genetics into a platform, enabling rapid integration into diverse food portfolios - from gluten-free pasta to fortified snacks.

What’s Next for NuCicer - and What It Signals for Food Innovation

NuCicer’s raise underscores a broader shift toward ingredient-first strategies in food tech. As the world seeks scalable, clean-label proteins with minimal environmental and social footprints, startups that master ingredient infrastructure - not just consumer-facing brands - will define tomorrow’s supply chain. NuCicer’s crop-centric model shows how strategic science, operations, and market alignment can make nutrition a dependable commodity - not a niche product.