Food tech startup Nutrition From Water (NXW), which makes protein from microalgae, has teamed up with the Azores-based ingredients company Prolacto to develop hybrid dairy blends for the Iberian market and joint international customers, Green Queen reports.
The problem the partners point to is whey. Whey prices broke records in 2025 and have kept rising: over the last two years whey protein concentrate has gone up 108 percent and whey protein isolate has nearly doubled.
NXW, founded in 2020 by Alex Worker, Harnish Howard and Toby Lane, grows several microalgae strains by heterotrophic fermentation and processes them into its Marine Whey line of fibre-rich ingredients. The company says they cost a third of the price of conventional whey. MW50 replaces sodium caseinate with 50 percent protein, MW70 Plus has 70 percent protein for fortification, and MWG is a fibre-rich ingredient with 35 percent protein for baking.
Prolacto has operated since 1968 in a region responsible for 30 percent of Portugal's milk production and supplies dairy and non-dairy ingredients to food and drink makers. The partnership will combine NXW's proteins and fibres with its ingredients and blending capability.
"We have built our ingredient platform to complement dairy, not to compete with it," said NXW chief executive Federico Duarte. Prolacto chief executive Oscar Criado del Ray said the two will explore how to bring differentiated products to customers across Iberia and selected international markets.
Replacing part of the dairy can lower saturated fat, add fibre and cut environmental impact, the report says. The two firms say they are exploring co-development and commercialisation.
Reporting by Anay Mridul for Green Queen.
Photo: CSIRO / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Source: Green Queen
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