Prepared remarks
Good morning and welcome to Moolec Science’s fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2024 conference call. My name is Bill Zima of ICR Strategic Communications and Advisory. During this conference call, all participants will be muted until after management’s remarks, when there will be a question and answer session. Please also note that today’s session is being recorded. Today, Moolec announced its fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2024 business highlights. The document is now available on the company’s Investor Relations website at ir.moolecscience.com. This morning, you will hear from Gaston Paladini, Chief Executive Officer and co-Founder of Moolec Science, together with Jose Lopez Lecube, Chief Financial Officer, and Amit Dhingra Chief Science Officer. During the Q&A session, they will be joined by Martin Salinas, Chief Technology Officer. In today’s call, we will be referring to a presentation that will be later available on the company’s Investor Relations website.
Moving to Slide 2, this conference call is mainly for informational purposes, and during this call the company will be making forward-looking statements regarding future events and results which are not historical facts and include, but are not limited to statements about the company’s beliefs and expectations. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Further information regarding these and other risks are included in the company’s annual report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC, also available on the company’s Investor Relations website. Now moving to Slide 3, I would like to turn the call over to Moolec CEO, Gaston. Please go ahead.
Thank you Bill, and good morning to everyone. It’s a pleasure to once again provide our latest business update corresponding to our annual review for our company. Today’s agenda will address three main topics. As I just mentioned, we will first review the major milestones we have achieved during the fiscal year of 2024. Secondly, Moolec’s Chief Financial Officer will walk you through the financial overview; and last but not least, we would like to share with you our thoughts on what we expect for fiscal year 2025. Let’s move now to the next slide. We will recap the main milestones the Moolec team achieved during fiscal year 2024. Turn with me now to Slide 5. What a phenomenal year it has been for Moolec in terms of scientific developments, business operations, and regulatory achievements. Our team has been driven to deliver milestone after milestone and continues to fire up on all fronts to push out deliverables on all pillars.
We have the commercialization of our science-based products using molecular farming technology shortly on the horizon, built upon the many efforts over the last year, from the setting up of Moolec’s self-owned molecular biology lab in the U.S. to the establishment of animal protein expression levels in Piggy Sooy products, as well as receiving USDA approval for Piggy Sooy, while preparing Glaso products for commercialization through trial production and securing farmland for production, and increasing Piggy Sooy availability in three U.S. locations. The Moolec team has shown exceptional execution. To provide more details of these achievements during fiscal year 2024, I would like to hand things over to Amit Dhingra, our Chief Science Officer. Amit, over to you.
Thank you Gaston. I’m excited to share the significant accomplishments of the Moolec farming team over this fiscal year. In the first quarter of fiscal year 2024, we successfully set up our fully owned plant molecular biology lab, the Moolabs, in College Station, Texas. Our lab became fully operational in Q1 FY2024, and I oversaw our plant molecular farming team that focused on the molecular characterization of the transgenic events for our target products. Conducting a significant portion of our plant biology R&D projects in-house versus third party labs helped us centralize and streamline the process. It facilitated faster implementation of decisions, ensuring the highest quality control standards, and improved the timeliness and quality of work while generating cost savings. Also during the first quarter, we achieved significant results in the continued development of the Piggy Sooy product.
During the first quarter, we harvested and analyzed third generation, or T3 transgenic events at Moolabs. Consistent with the prior results, the expression values of the animal protein, or myoglobin reached up to 20% in T3. Previously, we have observed expression levels of up to 25% of the total soluble protein in T2. Overall, what we have observed is that the expression of the animal protein has stabilized across three generations, which is very exciting. Onto the second half of this year, this business update marks a crucial moment for Moolec. In the third quarter, we announced a groundbreaking milestone, the first-ever approval from USDA, making Moolec the first company in our industry to achieve such a regulatory breakthrough. This achievement exemplifies our commitment to harnessing the power of plants through cutting edge science, addressing critical challenges like climate change and global food security.
For those new to our journey, Moolec has developed a unique patentable soybean platform technology under the trademark, Piggy Sooy. Our dedicated scientific team has achieved remarkable results expressing animal meat proteins and soybeans, with porcine protein levels reaching up to 25% of total soluble protein in the seeds. With this approval, USDA APHIS RSR has determined that Piggy Sooy poses no greater plant pest risk than non-generic soybeans, allowing us to transport and distribute this product with individual APHIS permits. This significantly accelerates logistics and reduces costs while ensuring full compliance with USDA regulations, giving Moolec a distinct advantage in the market. Also in the third quarter, we carried out a trial for our downstream production of Glaso with our industrial partner in Iowa as we optimized, processed, and produced a few tons of material to fine-tune the process.
In the fourth quarter, we began planting after successfully contracting 600 acres with key growers to produce Glaso seeds for crushing. Additionally, we contracted 60 more acres for seed production, aiming to yield 300 to 400 tons of safflower. This product has multiple customers, including a major client, as previously announced with Moolec signing an offtake agreement with a leading global consumer packaged goods company. In addition, Piggy Sooy field trials have commenced in Ohio, Missouri, and Iowa in order to increase seeds for scale-up and sampling for customers and to collect environmental and regulatory data as we work on the US FDA approvals. Now I’d like to turn the presentation over to my colleague, Jose, for the financial overview part of the presentation. Thank you very much for your kind attention.
Thank you Amit, and good morning to everyone. I’m pleased to provide this annual business update for Moolec for the fiscal year 2024. I would like to highlight our revenues, cost of sales, expenses, and cash utilization. Please note that all figures mentioned today are in U.S. dollars, unaudited, and based on International Financial Reporting Standards unless otherwise stated. Let’s move on to Slide 9. During fiscal year 2024, normalized revenues and other income excluding IAS29 increased by $4.8 million year-over-year from approximately $1 million in 2023 to $5.8 million in 2024. This increase was due to the consolidation of the soy product ingredient business in April 2023. Normalized cost of sales also rose year-over-year from nearly $1 million in 2023 to $4.5 million in 2024, in line with our revenue growth, resulting in an annual gross margin of around [indiscernible]. On the expenses front, SG&A and R&D increased by $3.1 million, from $6.2 million in 2023 to $9.3 million in 2024.
This increase mainly relates to non-cash items such as depreciation, amortization, and equity incentives, as well as the soy ingredient business consolidation. In terms of cash used in operating activities, cash utilization grew by $1.8 million, from $7.5 million in 2023 to $9.3 million in 2024. Specifically, during 2024, approximately $4 million was [indiscernible] to lower accounts payable, mainly related to transaction costs in 2023. Finally, our cash position of approximately $5.4 million as of Q4 2024 was enhanced by the purchase of 15,000 tons of HB4 soybean, which holds strategic value for Moolec concerning ESG alignment, traceability, and raw material procurement stability. The HB4 soy purchase was executed through a convertible note issued to BIOX and satisfies our projected raw material needs for our soy protein ingredient business until about December 2025. We are pleased with how Moolec continues to achieve significant milestones and create value while maintaining an adequate corporate structure and a cost-efficient strategy. I will now turn things back to Gaston for a glimpse into Moolec’s fiscal year 2025. Gaston, over to you.
Thanks Jose. Looking forward to fiscal year 2025, we believe this is going to be a pivotal year for Moolec. Turn with me to the next slide. In terms of commercialization traction in 2025, we expect to see commercialization of our new science-based ingredient begin to take off. With our already established traction in textured soy protein generation revenues, we are honing our operational expertise in launching our new products, first with Glaso, which we’ll harvest in October and is targeted to generate new revenues for Moolec in the upcoming fiscal year. Glaso will be a strategic commercial focus for us, complemented by the signed R&D collaboration agreement with Bunge, with the purpose of working together on the development of safflower varieties to improve productivity for specific applications or markets, as well as the commitment made from the offtake agreement with a major global consumer packaged goods company.
At the same time, we are actively engaging in conversations with prospective partners and clients, providing samples of the different proteins in our pipeline. We are looking at all fronts of business income streams, including the licensing of our proprietary technology for using new markets. In terms of operational focus for 2025, we will continue to fine-tune operations to enhance our upstream and downstream yields, as well as ensure the highest quality for our products following our identity preservation program, and implementing the best stewardship practices for all our crops. We are going step by step in each process to make sure we provide only the best. At the same time, we will continue scaling up our seed inventory so we can prepare for the different uses of our seeds from processing to planting. As we invest our time in all these activities in preparing for growth, we are still very committed to being careful to evaluate all our spending and managing the costs, while looking into different methods to improve our cost efficiency and streamline our logistics.
The last point in this section, but one that is extremely critical to our operations, is our deliberative focus on making meaningful progress on the regulatory pathway. We are actively performing and pursuing relevant processes and approvals from the different regulatory agencies. With regards to R&D and product development, this continues to be a core component of Moolec’s business. We plan to add new projects to the innovation pipeline with new proteins and molecular product development as current projects progress and enter the commercialization stage. Product development will continue during fiscal year 2025 in conjunction with the close communication and collaboration with partners and customers to ensure the marketability of our products in the pipeline. Lastly, in fiscal year 2025 we are consolidating our team. In order to optimize our work efficiency, we are strategically consolidating efforts.
The company will be establishing a new operational hub based in the U.S. so that we can strengthen our team’s collaboration and communication and enhance our overall efficiency. Secondly, with the coming new product commercialization, we need to expand our sales and marketing efforts. With this, we are methodically expanding the team to capture this market opportunity. In addition, the company will promote expanded visibility and presence in the industry by sending team members to present and network at food, pet food, and supplement industry shows and conferences. Let’s now move onto the next and final slide. As we look forward to the exciting developments in 2025, I am confident that our strategic initiatives will drive growth and value for all our stakeholders. Now I would like to open the floor to your questions and hear your thoughts, so I will now turn things over to Bill for the Q&A portion of our call. Thank you very, very much.
Thank you Gaston. At this time, Moolec’s management - Gaston, Jose and Amit, as well as Moolec’s Chief of Technology, Martin Salinas will be taking questions. You will submit questions through the Q&A chat box by submitting your name and firm in the chat and typing your question. Please be advised that we will ask you to un-mute your line to ask your question live. We ask those that would like to participate in the Q&A if your name and firm is not indicated in your profile, please submit your name and firm in the Q&A box before asking the question. Again, you may submit your questions through the Q&A chat box. Okay, before we take questions from the live queue, we have received a few questions via email. The first question is, this quarter you highlighted an offtake agreement for Glaso with a major global CPG company to enter the U.S. market in 2025. Can you provide more details on this collaboration? What efforts have both parties made, and what is the estimated scale and expected revenue generation in 2025?
Well, thank you so much, Bill, and thank you for the question. Please, let’s leave the floor to Scott Fortune after this question, because I saw he raised his hand before. Thank you for the question, thank you for being here. Good morning. Great question, because we are very excited about this offtake agreement of our first molecular farming product, Glaso, in the United States. We are excited because of, I’d say, a couple of reasons. The first one, because it’s a major global CPG company, we can’t reveal the name, unfortunately, because it’s private, because it’s huge, but it’s a very well-known brand worldwide with major operations in the States. That’s the main reason. Second good reason is that we are extremely happy about this is that Moolec is actually delivering milestones. We always tackled the U.S. market to be the first market to roll out our technology, our platform, molecular farming, and now this is real because it will be landing in the U.S. commercially.
Third, it’s because it’s happening at the perfect timing. The 2025 calendar year, we always had this timing in our internal plans. Moolec is delivering, and this contract is proof of that. Going back to the question, I want to highlight before going to Martin and then to Jose, I want to highlight that this is not a one-year contract, this is a three-year contract with the possibility to expand it. It’s not only relevant for the landing and to the starting point, it’s also an ongoing relationship with these major customers. I will leave the floor now to Martin Salinas, our Chief Technology Officer. He’s leading this operation in the United States, and he can give more color about the volumes and the traction of the crops and the production of the product, and afterward, Jose can give some indications of the revenue aspect.
Okay, thank you Gaston. As Amit mentioned, we currently have more than 600 acres planted in Idaho in the American Falls area. Mostly will be used as grain for crushing purposes, but we also have our seed stock planned as well to get to production next year in the following season, so we’re close to the harvest time where we’ll actually know our final yield, but we are expecting yields in a similar range to last year, around 1,400 tons per acre. Then, we’ll produce a range between 50 to 60 tons of GLA to be produced for the first year, mostly dedicated to the offtake agreement that Gaston mentioned.
Jose? Thank you, Martin.
Sure, thanks Gaston. Look - in terms of revenue, as you know, we have had a revenue stream, which is the soy protein ingredient business, which has produced revenues in the range of $6 million this 2024 fiscal year, and we believe for the fiscal year 2025, $6 million of revenues is a pretty good indication of how the business could evolve. It could grow gradually in terms of the soy protein ingredient business. However, we are very pleased with the introduction of Glaso as the second revenue stream for Moolec. We have high expectations for this product. In the medium term, we expect Glaso to participate as incremental revenue in fiscal year 2025 with a range of around 15% of the total revenue in fiscal year 2025. Having said that, as information, we have a three-year contract with a major CPG company. We expect that contract to provide a base demand for Glaso, and as time goes by and as we move toward fiscal year 2026 and 2027, we expect Glaso to become a more important part of the overall total revenue and have high participation in the total revenue, and we have good hopes in terms of how much this business can grow and to increase Moolec’s revenues in the short term, in the medium term, and in the long term as well.
Thank you Jose. Okay, let’s move on.
All right, thank you. The second question is you mentioned signing an R&D collaboration agreement with Bunge to develop safflower varieties aimed at improving productivity for specific applications and markets. Can you share more details about this partnership and the business opportunities from this? Are there any notable developments you’d like to highlight?
Thank you Bill. I can’t wait to talk about the Bunge agreement, but I would prefer, if you don’t mind, to go to Scott Fortune, because he raised his hand before. Scott, you want to un-mute yourself and ask your question?
Questions and answers
Yes, thank you and good morning. I want to congratulate you on the milestones and regulatory approvals achieved in fiscal year ’24. I would like to explore the commercialization and expansion further. Do we know the target market—are we focusing on supplements or mainly on pet foods with this CPG company? You mentioned initial production of about 50 tons, and I want to follow up on that. Your harvest is expected to yield around 300 to 400 tons of safflower seeds. How much of that volume do you anticipate for 2026? I’m looking to understand the ramp-up into ’26 regarding volume expectations and how much will go to your new CPG partner. Any additional details would be appreciated.
Thank you, Scott, and welcome to the call. Let me put it this way. Glaso's applications include dietary supplements, nutritional beverages, infant formulas, animal health, and pet food. If I'm overlooking any applications, feel free to jump in, Martin. These are the primary areas we focus on. We are currently engaged in discussions with multiple potential customers across these applications, particularly in dietary supplementation. One of Glaso's competitive advantages lies in its GLA oil products, which have concentration levels up to three times higher than conventional products on the market. The dietary supplementation sector is quite significant. Regarding the specific offtake agreement with the CPG company, that pertains to pet food. This is a prominent player in the market, known for its high volume and value. We are also having fruitful discussions with other potential customers for different applications.
In terms of production, we expect the harvest to yield approximately 50 to 70 tons, with around 60 tons anticipated; about 50 tons will be allocated to this commercial contract, and the remainder will be for other customers in different applications. We anticipate needing a few weeks to complete the harvest, assess the yields, and start production planning by the end of October. We expect to have detailed yield information from both the fields and the factory by November. We're excited as this marks our initial molecular farming product. Thank you for the question, and I'd like to invite Martin, Jose, or Amit to add anything further if they wish, but that's a brief overview of the offtake agreement, Scott.
I appreciate it. Regarding your discussions with other companies, how advanced are those discussions and what are your expectations for potentially adding more this year? What are they sampling and what needs to happen for them to move forward with you? Please provide an overview of where that pipeline stands and the possibility of adding on the Glaso for you.
I am quite confident that we will sell our entire production. In fact, I believe we could sell even more if we had additional material available, but we have to wait for the biological timelines. This is our first commercial campaign, and we are entering the market with strong contracts, key players, and a solid starting position. However, we need to focus on multiplying seeds, as Martin explained earlier. We have set aside part of the production for seed multiplication to scale up this campaign and prepare for next year, as we are already planning our subsequent commercial campaign. This will give us more flexibility, but we need to be cautious and not sell all the available production, reserving some of the fresh material for sampling. This will help us expand our commercialization network and strengthen our relationships with new customers by providing fresh samples immediately. That is our overall plan, and I am eager to grow the business next year. For now, everything is fully committed.
Got it, and I have one last question before you discuss the R&D collaboration with Bunge, which is fantastic. Could you please remind us about the progress on Piggy Sooy? We know the USDA or FDA is involved, but we will learn more in October regarding the results from the field trials. You mentioned the 20% range; could you clarify if we are still on track for commercialization in 2027 or 2028? Also, please outline the key milestones we should expect leading up to 2027, particularly in the next year regarding Piggy Sooy.
Great question. About a month ago, we announced that we would be harvesting both crops in October this year. Glaso will be used for production purposes, while Piggy Sooy has several objectives. One is to collect information for the FDA, which requires data from three different locations - Missouri, Ohio, and Iowa. We are in productive discussions with regulators, and we are confident in our ability to navigate the regulatory landscape with our team. We don't anticipate any delays; everything is progressing well, and the plans are promising. I hope to invite all stakeholders to witness the harvest in these locations because the plants are thriving. We're excited about this historic moment of harvesting fully USDA-approved animals from U.S. soil. For Piggy Sooy, the second reason we're advancing with field trials alongside regulatory information for the FDA is to obtain fresh material for sampling.
It's important to remember that Moolec is a science-based ingredient company, and the ingredient sector can be challenging. We need to collect samples and build relationships with producers in this business. We will gather fresh material directly from the farm, extract proteins, and send those samples promptly. We're in good discussions with various potential customers for Piggy Sooy, who are eager to test this ingredient in their recipes and labs. The third reason for the Piggy Sooy field trials in the U.S. is to complete the product development stage. I'll pass it over to Amit to discuss the specific events we have planted in the field, as we need to analyze transgenic events, assess plant performance, and process that data to select the champion seed for future multiplication, aiming for market entry in 2027 and 2028. I want to emphasize that timeline. Amit, would you like to provide more details about the science involved in the field?
Yes, thank you Gaston, and thanks for the question as well. As you all know, Piggy Sooy has demonstrated that we can express animal proteins to a very high level and store it in the seed section of the plant, which is really what is the product that we’re going to be utilizing. As we are doing these field trials in different locations, we want to reach a point where we want to evaluate in the fourth generation what the levels of this protein are going to be, and this platform technology which is primarily the regulatory elements that allow us to express this protein at a very high level is really being tested out. As I initially spoke during the update, we are seeing 20% total soluble protein being consistent through the third generation, which is a very important milestone in any transgenic technology event, and as we are doing these field trials, we will be harvesting a lot of plant material which we’ll also do further evaluations on.
This high level is really unprecedented in seed production, and we will take it from there. This is the platform we also want to utilize for other ingredients or other proteins, or other molecules that are desirable in the market as well, so very exciting what we are doing with this. We’re expanding our reach to commodity groups as well, soybean and other commodity groups to keep them involved and included as we are developing this product, so as Gaston invited stakeholders to our facilities and our trials just to see what we are really developing over here. Really exciting times for us and the science sector, and we continue to, as a scientist, to develop our concepts further and expand to other molecules as needed, it could be bioplastics, it could be any other pharmaceutical ingredient, etc. Thank you very much, Gaston. Back to you.
Thank you Amit. Okay, let’s move on. Thank you so much, Scott.
Thank you.
All right, our next question, we have an online question from Anthony Vendetti of Maxim Group. I’m going to read them. Have you signed any additional commercial uptake agreements for Glaso? If not, do you expect to sign any by the end of 2024? What percent of yield is accounted for?
Thank you, Anthony, and I appreciate your question regarding Bunge. It's great to have you with us today. Currently, we have not signed any additional offtake agreements. In the short term, this won't be necessary, as we will focus on invoicing and selling directly through spot sales for this campaign. We aim to have a formal agreement in place for the next campaign, which may be before the end of this year or next year, giving us plenty of time. We are having positive discussions with other customers as well. It's also about timing and market awareness. We're launching a new product, and we plan to participate in food, animal health, and dietary supplement shows next year to promote it. I'm very optimistic about the product's traction for the upcoming year and look forward to securing more offtake agreements for future campaigns. To address your question fully, what percentage of yield is accounted for? Martin, would you like to handle that?
Thank you for the question, Jeremy. I’m trying to understand the specific yield you are referring to regarding the tons per acre that we can recover from each acre.
Yes, both points will be addressed.
Yes, nevertheless so the yield that we are expecting, so yield for safflower in the area is around, I would say, 1,200, 1,300 tons per acre. We achieved last year in the range of 1,600, just was a seeding success last year compared to this season, where as Gaston said, was our very first commercial season. We expect kind of the same yield in that. On how much oil we can recover out of that, it’s highly dependent on the production that the crushing facility that we are using, so in that sense, we have been working a lot the last few months on optimizing that processing. I think Gaston mentioned some of that during the presentation. This particular trait of GLA has a reduced amount of total oil compared to wild types of flower, so we expect extraction in the range of 15 to 20% of the total oil. Let’s say out of that, we can expect maybe 80% of yield from the total oil recovery. That’s kind of the yield that we are expecting, very soon to be fully determined.
Yes, agree. This is happening as we speak, as I said before. Thank you so much, Martin. Okay, let’s move on. Thanks Anthony.
Okay, we can move onto my previous question. You mentioned signing an R&D collaboration with Bunge to develop safflower varieties aimed at improving productivity for specific applications and markets. Can you share more details about this partnership and the business opportunities from this? Are there any notable developments you’d like to highlight?
Yes, well, I remember the Bunge question. Thank you for that. We’re very excited about being close to Bunge now with this R&D and collaboration agreement with them. As you all surely know, Bunge is one of the ABCD companies, you know, that there’s four dominant agriculture trading worldwide, together with ADM, Cargill, and Dreyfus. It’s an honor for us, as a young company, to be close to these major players. Specifically about the R&D collaboration, this is for upstream efforts in our safflower platform. That’s part of our Glaso improvements, and some other new developments in the safflower varieties and safflower platform as well. I will leave the floor to Amit first to fully explain the importance of the genetics in the upstream to improve and focus on breeding varieties in the field. This is high level, you know? - this is very important to understand yields in the fields and to focus on science and genetics, and then Martin can give more color in terms of the specific traits that we are working.
I want to highlight that Bunge is focusing on safflower for biofuel applications. Moolec is focusing on safflower as a bioreactor platform, as many small factories to produce Glaso and new products in the pipeline, but both share the upstream part of the value chain. But again, I will put a pause now and pass to Amit to explain the breeding side, and Martin can explain the trait side.
Thank you Gaston. I would say that what we produce, what transgenic lines we produce, we select our champion events which have the highest level of expression and agronomic performance. But as new breeding lines are being generated which either have other traits, for example, they can perform better agronomically in different geographies or under different climatic conditions, so we can introgress or make crosses between these plants, go back to traditional breeding and take these traits that we’ve developed in our lines and move them into the desirable genetic backgrounds so that we can produce this product at a larger scale more efficiently with less input. One of the biggest things is that the genetic potential through breeding continues to be enhanced, and we have the opportunity through these partnerships where we can kind of capitalize on the new genetics that are coming through the pipeline as well by combining these traits through breeding.
I also wanted to say that we have in our internal Moolabs where we can categorize all these very rapidly with the equipment and the robotics that are available to us. We are able to really fast track identification of progeny or products that come out of those crosses, that can then be deployed. In the past, we mentioned about global scale-up potential of our technology, and I think this is where combining what we develop as initial traits with the breeding pipelines that exist in different crops, especially in this case, safflower, we can really produce this anywhere in the world. Thank you. Over to Martin.
Yes, so basically the yield that I mentioned for safflower GLA is around 14 to 15 tons which is quite a great yield in the United States, and it’s a variety that we have been using for a while. But when you compare that yield with the commercial of many other germplasms in the southern hemisphere, particularly in countries like Argentina, yields are not as good, so our main goal is to evaluate this and develop new lines that are better adapted, that are optimized in terms of the yield, the productivity for different territories, other territories than the United States, for us to increase our potential opportunities to expand the technology into other territories. That’s on us. As Amit said, once we identify this optimized line for other territories, we can start the integration process where we can introduce our traits into new germplasm and new varieties. Thank you.
Thank you, Martin, for your clarity, and I appreciate the question. Before moving to the next question, I would like to emphasize that there is a significant opportunity for Moolec with our connection to Bunge, not just regarding safflower seeds, but also our entire pipeline, including soybeans. We are engaging in promising discussions about soybeans for the future, so we'll see how that develops. Our priority remains fulfilling our commitments to Bunge regarding safflower upstream, but as mentioned earlier, this could be a step toward possible future collaborations with this significant company. Let's move on, Bill, and thank you again for the question.
Okay, great. Our next question comes from Arun Suresh. In terms of safflower oil products, how much revenue growth is expected in 2025, and can this be the main part of business in the future, given the push in AI and data centers for biofuels?
Thank you, Arun, for joining us today and for your question. Before I hand it over to Jose to discuss growth in 2025 regarding the business, I want to highlight that Moolec is concentrating on enhancing yields for Glaso and future products by utilizing safflower as a bioreactor, treating it as a small biological factory. Bunge is concentrating on biofuels. Personally, I believe we have yet to fully realize the potential of plants. Moolec is demonstrating with Glaso and Piggy Sooy that this technology is not only possible and feasible, but also cost-effective, sustainable, and tangible. It’s significant and concrete. By leveraging AI in the future, whether in data centers or other applications, I believe we have the capability to produce any molecule or protein in any crop using similar methods. But returning to your question, Arun, thank you for that, and I will now turn it over to Jose for more details on revenue.
Sure, thank you Gaston, and Arun, thank you very much for the question. As mentioned before, what we expect for fiscal year 2025 is that Glaso participates in the overall total revenue in around 15%. Again, for fiscal year 2026, there’s going to be a lot of focus on the operation of Glaso and the scale-up of the operation of Glaso, with a bigger campaign starting in May-June calendar year 2025. So what to expect in terms of Glaso participating in revenue onwards for fiscal year 2026, probably in fiscal year 2025 it’s going to be around 50%, for fiscal year ’26, I would expect it could be increasing significantly. So yes, we have good hopes, good expectations for the product and how it helps grow the revenue of Moolec.
Thank you, Jose. Before we move to the next question, I would like to invite Amit to elaborate on my technological and scientific response. Amit, the floor is yours.
Yes, sorry - I’m having some connection issues.
No worries. Well, in this particular case, I think our technologies are expanding quite a bit. Gaston, as you already mentioned, and Jose has also mentioned quite a bit about it. I don’t have much to add, but I think as we expand our technology platform here, we can make further milestones in this case to reach the market, as well as expand our product line in the future. Back to you, Gaston. Thank you. Yes, I fully agree. Thank you Arun for the question. Please Bill, let’s move to the next question.
Okay, we have a follow-up question from Anthony Vendetti with Maxim Group. Anthony states, can you discuss what steps you have taken or intend to take to continue to drive awareness and adoption of your PMF products?
Well, thank you for the question, Anthony, again. All the efforts that we have done, and we are willing to do in terms of our awareness of plant molecular farming as a technology are for the industry, are for the people that really understand technology, science, and applications. Moolec has a B2B business model. We don’t need to invest money and time to defocus communications in mainstream communications. We don’t need to talk to consumers. The Nestle’s of the world know how to communicate to consumers. Of course, we need to be transparent. We need to talk about the science. If you get into our website, we are trying to be very transparent about how we modify plants, how all our technology works, and so on, but all our efforts are to approach the people that really understand the tech, and that’s mostly the R&D departments of our potential customers - food technologists, scientists, food scientists, and people that now I can say that are fully understanding the potential of this tech.
I always say that when we started back in 2020, talking about modifying seeds for human consumption purposes, it was quite shocking. Four years later, I can definitely assure that this is very well understood. So we are going to continue educating the R&D departments. Most of them approach us directly because we are very active in leading, in public relations and some specific shows that we are attending, so it’s working so far. We really want to reinforce that communication since we are hitting the market now with Glaso and getting fresh material from Piggy Sooy very soon. We want to continue investing and maybe expanding that message now with fresh materials and new materials, clear communication materials as well. This is a very relevant topic that you have just raised, Anthony, in terms of helping us in the commercialization stage that Moolec is starting as we speak.
Okay, moving forward, we’ve received an online question from Patricio. Some of this is similar to the prior question, but if you care to elaborate, feel free to do so, Moolec team. The question is the achievements made so far in terms of advancements, research, commercialization, and technology are truly impressive; however, what are the specific plans for marketing campaigns and public relations? While this technology is innovative, I believe it is still not widely understood by the general public. Do you think greater exposure and support could attract more investors and increase the value of the shares? What is the plan in this matter?
It’s essential for us to address these aspects, particularly the investor relations efforts we are undertaking with ICR, together with you, Bill, Steph, and the ICR team. As a small company, maintaining strong investor relationships through a reputable IR firm like yours is crucial. We plan to continue collaborating with you and attending more conferences to enhance our public relations and keep our investors informed. It's not always sufficient given the vast market, with numerous public companies and promising biotechnology firms making it challenging to reach everyone. However, I believe that by consistently achieving milestones and communicating these developments promptly to the public and our investors, we will gradually gain more traction and awareness. Furthermore, we are committed to the long term, considering we are thinking in terms of decades, and this is just the beginning. Patricio, thank you for your insightful question. I want to emphasize the great work we are doing with ICR to broaden our reach together.
Another follow-up question comes from Salvatore Verdoliva. He mentions that he is new to the story and seeks clarification on Glaso. He asks how Glaso, being a fat-based product, can compete on cost with palm oil, or if it is aimed at a more premium market instead.
Thank you, Salvatore, for your question. I'm pleased that you're beginning to understand the story, as we can provide more insight into Glaso applications, its products, and competitive advantages, as well as give you a clearer view of what Moolec is doing with molecular farming. Before I hand it over to Martin to explain the product, I'll be brief since the market has just opened and many of you likely want to check on the shares. Glaso stands for gamma-linolenic acid safflower oil. Gamma-linolenic acid is a particular omega-6, which means it's a nutritional oil and not in competition with palm oil; rather, it competes with other GLA oils available in the market, predominantly sourced from borage oil and primrose. Martin, would you like to add anything?
No, I think you explained it quite well. The only thing I would add is our competitive advantage compared to borage and maybe even primrose, which are plant-based oils rich in GLA, is that our product contains between 50 to 60% GLA, so out of the complete fatty acid profile, 60% of it is GLA. The next most rich GLA plant-based oil is borage, which has only 20%, and primrose is in the 10% range. Therefore, our fatty acid profile produces three times more GLA per kilo of oil than other oils in the market rich in GLA. That’s our main competitive advantage.
Thank you Martin. I want to add before we close, or we go to the next question, that concentration levels are critical for dietary supplements, for example. It’s not the same to take three or four pills per day rather than one pill, so our competitive advantage is definitely a strong sales message and that’s what we are going to do in terms of communications. Now that we have products in the market, it’s to reinforce that competitive edge. Bill, do you have any more questions? I think there is not any other questions in the chat box.
That’s correct, Gaston. It appears there are no further questions at this time, so I’d like to hand the call back over to you for some closing remarks.
Yes, well before that, I want to ask my fellow partners here if you want to add something before we go. Amit, I think that maybe you wanted to add some comments in terms of the technology. Jose, Martin, feel free before we go.
Yes, thank you Gaston. I wanted to address a couple of comments earlier and add to those about plant molecular farming. We are really connecting a lot with commodity group organizations because, as Gaston mentioned, we had a B2B business. We are first informing them, so as we interact a lot with the commodity group organizations, that really helps us be in front of these groups, which also fosters collaborations, business collaborations, and partnerships that will come out of those. Secondly, we are also becoming members of several other organizations such as the International Society of Plant Molecular Farming, Society of In Vitro Biology, and then other organizations such as the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, because we really want to work with these groups. These are scientific bodies that can then utilize our information and they utilize the plant molecule farming to reach our policymakers.
Sometimes that also crosses over to the investor groups, so really the effort on the science side is that what we have developed in our technology platform is cross-cutting the business piece, the technology leadership piece, and it’s really leading the way forward for producing some of the major ingredients that we need today through plant molecule farming. Through this ecosystem, we are developing that. As Gaston said, R&D folks are coming to us - in fact, I get invited out on behalf of Moolec to speak at various plenary sessions to talk about what we’ve achieved through soy, Piggy Sooy as well as Glaso, so that’s a very exciting time for us in the science field. That also fosters new ideas that are our new scientists who are starting their careers or have new technologies that really are interested in this, and that’s how together we will really advance the science on this front, so very exciting.
Thank you, Amit. To expand on that, we are very dedicated to stewardship and committed to adhering to identities within our program for crops in the United States. We are working with high-value products and fully operating in the U.S. with the RSR from the USDA APHIS, which is remarkable. Additionally, we are very focused on ensuring traceability of our beans and seeds, which is crucial for our operations. Furthermore, as you mentioned, Amit, we are involved with various soybean and scientific associations. Jose, Martin, is there anything else before we proceed?
No, for my part, thank you everyone for participating in the call and the interest in Moolec. Please do reach out for anything, any questions, any doubts that you have. I’ll be pleased to help and get in touch with you.
I’m okay. I’m okay on my end, thank you. Thank you all. It was quite an interesting conversation during this Q&A. Thank you.
Good, okay. Great. I personally would like to thank Catalina Jones, our Chief of Staff and Sustainability of Moolec, for leading internally again this business update. Thanks ICR, Steph, Bill, thank you, and to the Moolec team, and also to my fellow officers here presenting with me. To all of you, thanks for joining us today on this annual business update. Thank you for taking the time and your interest in the company and our story. Finally, I want to reinforce the commitment of our company, of Moolec, and our main shareholders as well to keep the company public in this challenging market, as you surely know. We redouble our commitment to our purpose of redefining the way we produce animal proteins through molecular farming for the good of the planet, for the good of all. So thank you again, and have a great day.
Thank you all, you may now disconnect.