Shimadzu Corporation has invested in Kinish Inc. (Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; hereinafter "Kinish") through its corporate venture capital (CVC) fund, the Shimadzu Future Innovation Fund. Kinish is a food-tech startup developing next-generation dairy products using plant molecular farming technology.*1 The company sells The Rice Creamery, a rice-based ice cream, while also conducting R&D on technology for expressing the milk protein casein in rice.*2 In the future, Kinish aims to create dairy products such as ice cream, cheese, and yogurt using rice produced through this technology.
Against the background of global population growth and climate change, sustainable food production and a stable food supply have become social challenges. Although the alternative dairy market is expanding, plant-based products still have room for improvement in taste and flavor. To achieve both sustainability and good taste, Kinish is conducting R&D on proprietary rice varieties by combining plant molecular farming with plant factory technology. The dwarf rice used in its research grows to about 20 cm in height, making it suitable for multi-tier vertical cultivation and enabling highly efficient production. At the research stage, Kinish has succeeded in expressing the milk protein casein in rice and is working toward the future commercialization of plant-based foods that offer an eating experience similar to that of dairy products.
Shimadzu has provided analytical and measuring technologies in the food, life sciences, and environmental fields for many years. Through this investment, Shimadzu will support Kinish's R&D and collaborate on advanced analytical evaluation and quality control methods for raw materials, products, and cultivation environments, as well as the application of measurement technologies in plant factories, thereby contributing to sustainable food production.
- *1 Technology that uses plants as "factories" to produce useful substances such as pharmaceuticals, food ingredients, and proteins.
- *2 The Rice Creamery products currently on sale are made using conventional rice grown in Japan. They do not use the rice under development
| Name | ： | Kinish Inc. |
| CEO | ： | Hiroya Hashizume |
| Location | ： | Shibuya-ku, Tokyo |
| Business | ： | Food development using plant molecular farming technology |
| Founded | ： | January 2023 |
| URL | ： | https://kini-sh.com/ |
| Product brand website | ： | https://the-ricecream.com/ |
| Name | ： | Shimadzu Future Innovation Investment Limited Partnership |
| Fund Size | ： | JPY 5 billion |
| Fund Term | ： | 10 years |
| General Partner | ： | Global Brain Corporation |
| Limited Partner | ： | Shimadzu Corporation |
| URL | ： | https://www.shimadzu.com/research_and_development/cvc/index.html |