Sweet protein manufacturer Oobli is scaling its operations, strengthening its partner network and preparing for multiple product launches enabled by its proprietary sweet protein technology.
“2025 is a big year for Oobli. We are very excited,” said Oobli’s CEO Ali Wing. “I would say it is coming off a very big 2024 for us in getting a ‘no questions’ letter and sort of being ready to have commercial scale” with major partners.
A key part of that scale-up is Oobli’s newly announced partnership global food ingredient provider Ingredion. The collaboration is a critical move to bring sweet proteins into the mainstream and make them accessible through established food systems, Wing explained.
“We spent a lot of time working with partners, like Ingredion, and we are super excited about them as one of our big first announcements,” she said. “What I am most excited about is us coming forward with this, with Ingredion, and saying, ‘All right, now we are actually going to show up together.’”
The partnership allows Oobli’s sweet proteins to be integrated into real-world food applications – some of which debuted at Future Food-Tech San Francisco, including boba teas and matcha pop-tarts sweetened with sweet protein and stevia.
“You are going to get to taste for the first time, not just sweet protein and stevia combined sweetening products, but across their portfolio,” Wing said. “It really is just a big extension for us on distribution and sales and size.”
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Positioning sweet proteins as part of the sweetener system
Rather than displacing existing sugar alternatives, Oobli sees sweet proteins as an addition to modern sweetener systems. Wing noted that the company’s goal is to integrate its ingredient technology into what is already working for manufacturers – offering more flexibility rather than prescribing a single solution.
“We are really trying to be a part of everybody’s sweetener system,” she said. “I don’t need to tell you which sweetener to love or not love. I just know that protein sweetening more of sweeteners is going to be good for everybody.”
Texture and application: Letting partners take the lead
While Oobli’s core innovation is in sweetness, Wing highlighted Ingredion’s complementary expertise in texture and formulation.
“Ingredion is so well known for their texture capabilities,” she said. “What you will see is what they are already doing – there are certain things they can do more of, differently, solve certain problems by adding sweet proteins for their customers.”
Wing acknowledged that sweet proteins do not replicate sugar’s functional roles, such as bulking or mouthfeel. That is where Oobli’s partners come in.
“Sweet proteins really replace sweetness. We do not play much of a role when you pull out sugar, what you are doing for bulking or texture,” she said. “There is an incredible power in what sweet proteins can do to kind of open up what else you can do with the other applications.”
Advice to food-tech startups: Understand the big players
As more companies in fermentation and food tech aim to commercialize, Wing advised they understand the economics and priorities of larger players.
Oobli is taking a different route with precision fermentation. Most companies in the space use the technology to target dairy and meat proteins. Oobli, by contrast, uses precision fermentation to produce scalable and affordable sweet proteins – a significant feat in a landscape where companies often struggle to secure the infrastructure, equipment and capital needed to scale their ingredient.
“One of the advantages we have is by bringing sweet proteins – we are going after sweetener sugar reduction or sweetener systems – we work with plant-based proteins that are 2,000 times sweeter,” she said. “So, I can get to some of the cost and margin and COGS efficiencies that the big guys need earlier than some of my peers that are trying to do it in meat and dairy.”
She stressed the importance of understanding how large CPGs operate.
“Big companies have a list of needs just like you do,” she said. “Understand what they are. They are not different because they are talking to you or anybody else. The more you can understand that and figure out how can your technology be a part of that, the more you can make it easier for them to find the partnership.”
Wing also emphasized a mindset of collaboration over disruption.
“This will be an ‘and’ strategy. Whatever you are doing, you will need partners,” she said. “So approach it all as not a ‘what I do means everything else is bad,’ but more, ‘what I do hopefully can help unlock some of what we are trying to get at.’”
Looking ahead: products and normalizing sweet proteins
With its technology in place and partners lined up, Oobli expects in 2025 to bring a wave of sweet protein-enhanced products to market.
“In the next couple quarters, you are going to see a handful, if not a half a dozen, companies that come to market with products that are protein sweetened,” Wing said. “That will be across multiple categories.”
Among the anticipated launches are products from baked goods company Grupo Bimbo. While Wing left the launch timing for Bimbo to announce, she confirmed that Oobli’s proteins will appear in baked goods, sports nutrition, snacks and other categories this year.
In addition to Ingredion and Grupo Bimbo, Oobli plans to expand its partner network further in 2025.
“You will see us work with a lot of different people, because our goal really is to make proteins accessible,” she said. “Almost nobody in our populations today is overeating protein, and almost all are under eating protein and overeating sweets. So, the more that we can bring protein to any combination of sweetener systems … the more we can help bring that balance back into order.”
Ultimately, Oobli’s mission is to normalize sweet proteins as part of the broader conversation around sweetness and nutrition.
“You will see sweet protein starting to be normal lexicon for a lot of companies as they are thinking about sweeteners,” Wing added.
Video production and editing by Caroline Rude.
