Hello everyone, and welcome to the Solar Foods Half Year Report 2026 Webcast. My name is Maria Rämö, and I am here today with our CEO, Rami Jokela, and CFO, Ilkka Saura. Rami will kick things off by going through the significant events of the first half of the year, and after that, Ilkka will go through the financial highlights. In the end of the webcast, we have a Q&A, and you in the audience have the possibility to ask questions through the chat function. Without further ado, Rami, the stage is yours.
Yeah. Thank you, Maria. Welcome also my side. So what is happening in Solar Foods in the first half year? We are implementing our strategy. We are proceeding in a commercialization and industrialization journey. Some of the key highlights. So we have first consumer product launch now in the U.S. market, the biggest health and performance market globally, and that happened in May. We are very excited about that. Later I will tell more about that. We also have been very successfully implementing our financing. So the first half year, we have got the commitments and more than EUR 100 million ensuring the funding for our operations and also the Factory 02 plan what actually we have. What we communicated last year, October, that we are using strategic partners for our Factory 02.
I am very happy to announce here as well in a report that we have GEA, which company, the global leading food technology company, area, as well as Fortum is a leading provider for the renewable energy and decarbonization in the Nordics. Both companies are our strategic partners as well, developing Factory 02. We also have done a lot of progress in the Solein ingredient and application development. We have developed more than 18 new product concepts in the health and performance segment, which is a key for our customers, based on the customer needs and requirements together with customers. Also with ready to drink, we have developed a UHT stable product, what I will tell more about very soon.
So you can see that all elements, commercial, funding, also the effort to factory, the partnership and development plans, have made the designs ready for the final invested, the decision direction, as well the product application. Very good development all in all, in all sectors. So before I go to all the details, I like to tell one more time what is our big picture. So we are in the middle of the three major megatrends. We are in a unique position having global leading technology platform to connect all these three megatrends. What are those? Protein, which is of course the trend data and the growth by the health and wellness, but also GLP-1. The Barclays analyst estimated that the global protein market has already reached EUR 1.6 trillion. So it is a huge market, and growth for the next five years expected to be 37%.
Absolutely enormous growth. Earlier we talked about the health and wellness as a megatrend, but you can see that protein has come the centerpiece of this megatrend now. The other big megatrend is food sovereignty and security of supply. By yourself reading the news, what happened now the summertime, for example, in the climate, extreme heat, forest fires, water scarcity and drought, you can all understand what is impact of the El Niño. If you follow what actually European Central Bank is estimating, the impact of the price and price increases to the food commodities is up to 9%. Absolutely big impact actually expected. Every country is of course, looking how to ensure that there is food availability in the country as well, the less dependencies of the climate, as well to other countries or supply. Fertilizer volatility has been also unprecedented.
If you take a look actually the last 10 years, fertilizer prices actually doubled. It is a huge impact as well. That is why many of the countries, they have set their national agendas to secure the supply and food sovereignty. China have their five-year plan. Japan just announced a few weeks back for this, the new EUR 6.2 billion investment for the new food and the roadmap for the 2040. Europe have this EU Biotech Act I , and now they are working with the EU Biotech Act II , how to secure the food supply in Europe. You can see that a lot of things are happening. It is a strategic topic, as such. The last big megatrend, what I have here, is hydrogen and decarbonization, energy transition, electrification.
If you take a look what was the BloombergNEF, the analysis putting together, that there is a EUR 2.1 trillion investment annually, an 8% growth year- on- year. Solar Foods, we are using hydrogen. We make a hydrogen end product protein, and actually we are helping a lot in the food sovereignty point of view. If you take hydrogen, the most value-added end product, what you can do for the hydrogen actually is a food. Of course, same time, we are giving the very good recipe for the governments how to decarbonize as well. You can see that we are the centerpiece of that. All right. Let us go to details, what actually are the big, significant events for the first half year.
All right, I commented already that now we entered the U.S. health and performance nutrition market, and Ambrosia Collective, our customer who launched their Planta ready-to-mix brand over there. Based on the feedback for the consumers, what we have heard from the Ambrosia Collective, they are very excited, very good feedback. It is a bestseller in the company, and you can think of it in two months' time actually to achieve that kind of position. Also now they are already planning more flavors. What we understood that Solein actually helps evolving the Planta brand, which is a big topic and confirmation to us that actually we have something unique as an ingredient for our customers. They also are looking for the marketing events, how the Planta brand will go, and also social media. The national wide distribution through the retail chains.
Once those will be available, of course, more to report. Why U.S. market is so important for us? We have the health and wellness, what we have to talk about, but now the GLP-1 topic actually has arised and protein demand has been increasing perhaps more than what they expected. And protein products actually have moved from typically sports users to mainstream users. And U.S. market, which is at EUR 10 billion, as such, only for the health and performance, of course, a key market for us. We are very excited. And if you will think about how big milestone this is for Solar Foods and the whole, perhaps, industry for the Novel Food. There is a few companies who are on the market in the Novel Food in the U.S.
But if you think about it, first international Novel Food ingredient company entering the U.S. market, which is outside of the U.S. actually doing that, and having publicly available consumer brand to buy the health and performance segment, that's us. So it's a major milestone for us actually, have a first brand available and consumers can enjoy the Solein, the blended products. Very good. We are very happy and thank you for the Ambrosia Collective leadership, all the full support and good cooperation here. We have done a lot of work validating and confirming and progressing our value proposition. We have four value proposition in the Solein. We have sustainability and decarbonization. Like you know, we have been marketing and saying that we have the most sustainable protein available.
And recently, we made a new updated external LCA study, the life cycle assessment study for the CO2, and that also confirmed, yes, we are the most sustainable protein available. Supply and price is one, other one is nutrition, and of course, these all the applications. I will tell more about those now. So if you take a look at where the whole protein market and supply and price development, the whey protein is the benchmark. Whey protein isolate and concentrate. And like we have earlier reported, there is a huge demand coming for the supply. And the whey protein, as it's a by-product of the cheese production, cannot cope with the demands. And that's why there is a supply gap. And that supply gap actually have affected two big topics.
One is a supply challenge and quality challenges, because now what kind of whey you will actually use, and you might be making compromises for your customers, what they do. As well, the price has tripled in the last two years. So you can see that this is actually big opportunity to have some alternative, very good nutrition, high quality products like Solein. That's why we said the Solein unlocks growth with a stable and discounted price versus or compared to whey, and we have scalable supply and steady quality. So this is the discussions what we have with customers, and of course, especially with these big CPG companies and health and performance companies. This is a big agenda topic for them. So how they can ensure their growth. So we are, of course, ensuring the growth for those companies providing this very high-quality protein.
If you take a look more detail for the price, here we are using the Vesper price development. If you take a look at almost three years band, you can see that it has tripled the price in a whey protein isolate, but also whey protein concentrate. That is also in U.S. as well in Europe. You can see that our EUR 17 /kg , what we have publicly said as a Solein price point, it is a very good price for our customers to go for. That is why you can see that we are confirming our value proposition for this current price and supply. If we move to the nutrition, we have been communicating this many times earlier.
We have this 80% protein. This is very balanced amino acid profile, all nine essential amino acids, 20% branch amino acids, and 43% essential amino acids. So very comparable if you go towards this kind of whey concentrator, whey isolate. We also have fibers, 10% fibers, 40% are beta-glucans. This could be the next big thing. We already hear some kind of trends, that the protein, of course, booming and a mega trend, but fiber could be the next big thing. Good thing is Solein have already both. We see that this is very good for us. If you think about what customers typically are looking for, they are looking for, is it lactose-free, is it soya-free, is it gluten-free? How much is the protein? How much is fiber? Is there some other minerals? How is the taste?
For some customers, also, this non-GMO is absolutely key as well. So, we see that we have very good product available. That is one of the key value proposition that we have. Now, of course, give alternative to our customers when, like I communicated, the supply and price challenges are happening at the moment. Application area, we have done a lot of work, and this has been because of following our customer needs and requirements. We want that the Solein ingredient and applications will perform the best in our customers' products. So I highlighted a few areas. So we have these protein bars, protein drinks, and ready to mix. If protein bars, for example, we know that based on feedback, we have a value proposition what is already the validated mouthfeel has been very good. No graininess. Disperses very smoothly as such.
Now we have developed one more flavor for that one. Now we have totally three flavors. Ready to drink, where I already said about this UHT treatment, which actually we are able to have a stable product with a broad pH and temperature ranges. This is absolutely key value for our customers in storing the room temperatures or actually with chilled. So actually still stable all the time and very, very good in that. High solubility as well. We have nine new flavors and now totally 12. You can see how much we have put efforts to development. Ready to mix area, like this Ambrosia Collective came for this area. So we have already outstanding binding properties, excellent texture contribution, and also new flavors there. Now we have already 10 total flavors, eight developed in the last six months time.
We also have been doing ongoing development for the ingredient performance and product optimization. We have improved the Solein powder solubility handling, and when you have industrial plant, of course, you like to make sure that there is no dust or anything, that it goes smooth in the process. Of course, the fast dissolution, how quickly our Solein will work. Also, 25% reduction in the iron has been on our topic we have been focusing. We continue, of course, for those developments as well. A lot of work done, and this all work is towards our customers. We follow our customer needs. We want that the customer will be successful. We help our knowledge here as well, what we know at Solein, and that is why we do this kind of concept selling models for the different prototypes as well.
If it talk about commercial progress, we have this concept sales model, what was selected in Capital Market days about two years ago. This is absolutely working. Why it is working so well? We are able to showcase Solein capabilities in this kind of products, like a ready to drink or ready to mix or protein bars, what I explained to you. Also, we are collecting and learning how the different flavors, different ingredients, or different treatments actually works. Our customers, of course, they have their own value proposition for how they like the position. They have certain ingredient list, how they are going to use it, and so on.
We have this kind of application know-how to support our customers, and that has been a big, big focus, and we continue investing for this one because this will be the key to make our customers successful very quickly. This is very time-consuming when our customers, of course, are doing the application development. This is absolutely key, perhaps one of the key messages if you like to take out of this today, the webcast as well. We have been focusing for the agile health and performance companies, smaller companies which are fast and bringing the products to the market. Also focusing for the large, the health and performance companies and CPG companies. Those are the big volumes, especially Factory 02 and Network Factories laid. We are turning now. We communicated four LOIs and memorandum understandings to the firm offtakes.
I can report very good continuing progress and discussions back and forth, and which stage is application development and what could be the launch plans or limited launch plans or seasonal launch plans, how to commercialize that one as well. So that I can say now that progress has been there. More to communicate once we can announce which brands we actually have agreements and something more tangible to say. Solein is commercially available in Singapore and now U.S., we are very proud of as well. For Europe, we have been continuing our active work. We expect to get a Europe EFSA opinion very soon. We have answered all the questions. We expect that sooner than later, we get the scientific opinion about the Solein.
And of course, we hope to get this positive feedback, then we can start to really make Europe the launch plans with our customers, who are absolutely waiting to get this Solein into the whole market as well. Here below, I have shown the five elements for typical customer journey. First customer, it might take one year to one and a half year. Big companies, two years or even three years. So introduction, product positioning, okay, how this brand or Solein could actually fit the portfolio of the company. Application development with the recipe is developed together with ingredient list, what customers have and how it fits actually their consumer needs and positioning. This typically takes a long time. That actually we have seen, and we are supporting our customers a lot.
We are investing even more for that one because we can see that this is the area we can accelerate. Commercialization and launch plans is a key, so which channels our customers are using then finally, and what is a consumer story, storyline, storytelling for that. Of course, we are supporting our customers for that. So how the Solein and the whole Solar Foods story could fit their launch plans. That typically leads now to agreements, like Ambrosia Collective was a good example. This is a lengthy process, and I can comment if you ask of any surprises here, that this is perhaps one of the learnings, that this application development takes time. All right, I continue here. Our concept sales model, what we selected, it works.
We have now clear evidence with Ambrosia Collective, also other customers, what we are in a process to launching in the U.S. at the moment, and preparing also in the European Union. This is now showing actually Factory 01 volumes and Factory 02 volumes, how we are planning. So we want to have fast-moving health and performance companies, small or midsize companies, get quickly the product to the market first. But same time, you can see that we have this leading health and performance companies. Those are perhaps more than $1 billion in revenues. Then major CPG companies, which is a multiple billion as a size of the companies. We are securing certain volume already from our Factory 01 with our R&D factory demo plant, that we are able to do this testing and possible limited launches as well. So that's our tactical way how we do.
Of course, when we move to the Factory 02 volumes, clearly, the majority of the volumes come to the big companies. One more time, this concept sales model what we introduced, it has worked very well. So demonstrating this, that we have our own concepts and learnings with the Solein ingredient, how it works, and applications to support our customers. Absolutely key as such. Then if you talk about our Factory 02, so factory design, we have advanced at the final phase in the design together with partners. Now all the interfaces, timelines, delivery scopes as well actually, how this factory will be visualized, but also concretely will be built in the plants as well. So we are now in the final phase towards this final investment decision.
With GEA, which is a processing area, we are doing the design and engineering together, but also negotiating for the supply agreement and a strategic partnership agreement for the network of factories. Energy services area, where Fortum is a cooling, heating, electric grids, and hydrogen, so four key areas. We are proceeding with the engineering at the moment. Of course, the discussions, how we can buy the services later from Fortum for the Factory 02, and have agreements for that. Real estate area, we are exploring real estate investor options, and Vicus Capital Advisors has been our partner for that one, to find a real estate investor options for that one. All in all, I have to say that I am very happy. We have very strong partners. We have even more key partners announced than here. We are ready actually for the Factory 02 indeed.
What you already heard and we will hear more, the financing looks also very good. Now it is more to continue with the commercial side to make these offtake plans and realize those. All right. I will conclude here what we are doing here with Factory 02 and why we have Fortum, GEA, and other big companies interested to collaborate and be part of that. What is in the middle of Solar Foods and Solein, this technology platform? We have the world's leading gas fermenters and technology platform to produce the food for human. Actually, we are the only one who have any permissions to sell that, any country and globally. This is also a platform we are able to produce 10 x more efficient than a photosynthesis today. It is a paradigm shift. Food is ready in three days.
What we are doing now, we are building a new ecosystem for the food and energy industries together. That you can see what we have, we have a left-hand side, a hydrogen oxygen, where Fortum is our selected intended partner. Then we have a carbon oxide and a renewable energy. We are discussing at the moment who could be actually the companies there. In the middle, in the technology platform, we have Fortum and GEA and Vicus Capital Advisors, what I explained already. On the right-hand side, we have food companies who we are working on. Then the health and performance, we have protein drinks, protein powder, and protein bars. Then you can see that Solein is a very versatile ingredient. We can go to dairy replacement, egg replacement, other markets as well later. But we have this kind of step phase plan.
First, health and performance, and then expanding more. All right. That is perhaps all in all what I can say. We have something unique here, and we are developing very well. But now might be the right time to tell something more about the financial highlights. Ilkka, what about if you tell where we are in the financial part?
Oh, thank you, Rami. Hi, all. Very pleased to be here today with you and discuss the first half results. This report has been out for a couple of hours. Some of the key figures, P&L operating loss at EUR 6.8 million. We ended the period with a very healthy balance sheet, mainly because of the executed funding transactions and the cash flow showing our commitment towards the investment path and commercializing this asset, Solein, through the Network Factories and our partners. As you also might have noted, the P&L was presented in functional format. I am discussing a couple of key highlights of the P&L, so research and development expenditure at about EUR 6.4 million, sales and marketing at EUR 1.3 million, and general admin at EUR 4 million. It has to be noted that the company continues to recognize the capitalized R&D costs through P&L in the R&D expenditure.
With this in mind, the adjusted R&D expenses remained at about EUR 8.4 million at more or less same level as last year, again, underlining the fact that the company invests heavily in the future and the upcoming growth. Sales and marketing, of course, growing from prior year about EUR 500,000 due to the accelerated go-to-market activities, especially in the U.S., but also into Europe as we are moving towards the anticipated Novel Food approval in Europe. General and admin included certain non-recurring items, such as the transaction fees of the executed equity transaction in January, among other items. Cash flows, net cash flow at about EUR 19.1 million, positive due to the funding round. Operating cash flow was at EUR 4.5 million and investment cash flow at EUR 400,000, whereas financing remained at very healthy EUR 24 million.
It is good to note that company received approximately EUR 8 million-EUR 9 million of grants over the period. That is also visible in the reports and the prior reports. These have been recognized in both operating cash flow and investment cash flow. With this in mind, the cash flow into operations and investment increased about EUR 4 million, mainly because of somewhat material investments to Factory 02 and related working capital and the non-recurring equity transaction, as well as the growth in the sales and marketing expenditure. This is good to keep in mind. As cash is the king, it is important to note that the cash balances at the end of the period stayed at about EUR 27 million. So very good in that sense.
Some of the other key figures, revenue, reported revenue approximately rounded EUR 100,000, growing from last year, comprised of deliveries to customers in the U.S. and some other parts of the world. Good to also note the decline in the order book, which we have been reporting for quite some time. A certain customer, a very small health and performance fast-moving company, decided to discontinue its operation and start dissolution, and that supply agreement has been eliminated from the order book. One of the key highlights in this report is, of course, the execution of our financial program. In October last year, we came out with the funding plan on the financing needs with the strategic partners with about EUR 190 million of capital need.
In January this year, during the period, company executed very successfully a directed share issuance to certain strategic partners as well as institutional investors, family offices, and high-net individuals. In June, just before the period and closing, we managed to come out with a nice announcement of a funding package with Business Finland comprising of a grant of about EUR 39.6 million and an R&D loan with somewhat interesting terms of about EUR 38.1 million, of which 30% can be paid in advance, and it comes with relatively interesting pricing of 1% in interest and a grace period of five years from the initiation of the drawdown. With this funding package and the equity financing, the message and the milestones that we promised to the investors have been executed in a very rigorous way, which we are really proud of course.
What this actually means is shown here. We started this year, and also while we communicated this funding plan, we had roughly 10% or even single-digit figures secured of this funding package. But now, as we came out with this report, we are very glad to tell you that 71% of this package has been secured. This is a massive milestone for the company itself, and this is of course something that we continue to execute in the future. Also considering the off-balance-sheet items through the build, operate, maintain partnerships with our partners such as Fortum and others, taking care of about EUR 127 million of CapEx. Good news in the funding front. This kind of means that whatever comes to the FID, the company remains somewhat confident that the necessary funding exists whenever we are doing the FID. Great progress indeed.
I want to discuss with you the restatement of P&L. As you saw, the company has been evaluating its reporting of financials and has decided to report the P&L in the functional format and not discontinue the by-nature-based format. However, those figures are still reported in the notes of the report and available for investors. This decision was taken because we want to bring more and more material information to our investors and potential investors about the expenditure of the firm and also the capital allocation as we move on the growth strategy. Good to note also that the gross presentation of internally developed CapEx has been discontinued. However, the capitalization is recognized in the R&D expenditure and also disclosed in the notes. With these words, I would like to hand over back to you, Rami, for a wrap-up.
Yeah. Thank you. Way forward, what to expect now. During this year, we will continue to execute our strategy. We have been doing very well in many areas: funding area, commercial area, factory development area, as well the partnership area, like I commented a lot, and investing heavy for that one. Our target is to be ready for the final investment decision for the Factory 02. Factory 02 will make this company different. This company, after this factory is running, will be the profitable company, and highly profitable based on our plans. What we need in order to make it? We need to have sufficient binding customer agreements. That is what we are working at the moment, and good progress over there. Visits both parties and meetings, high level, C-level boardrooms. We are, of course, building company, the partner network even further.
We are preparing actually for the Factory 02, but making sure that they will happen on offtake and the next customers, especially Europe as well. The design together with partners, which are now selected all for the Factory 02, that we have a solid design plan, schedules, CapEx plans, and delivery plans, and leadership and governance for that one. Implementing this financing plan, what Ilkka Saura was already commenting and what we are very happy as well how developing has gone. How to finalize and implement that one. Research and development of the Solein. I used quite much time already. But we continue and we continue to invest for that one because we know this will be the gate that even get more offtakes and faster actually for customer commitments. Then there's two major milestones which are not fully in our hands.
Europe, Novel Food approval, so EFSA opinion, scientific opinion first and later approval. Then, of course, in U.S., what we one year ago already applied no-question letter for U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA. Those are the seven major elements, what we are working on. One more time. We have proceeded very well. If you summarize actually commercial part and get the U.S. market and good feedback, that's a confirmation that the Solein ingredient works, and also consumers are available to buy it. That's a major milestone. We are working on with the offtakes and are more launches in the U.S., and once we have a Europe approval, certainly here in Europe as well. Funding is a key element. Of course, our offtakers are really eager to see the factories happening. It's also financed.
You can see that we are working with the funding plan, looks good. Also all the key partners and those companies who are working with us strategically here, they are well-known global leaders or regional leaders companies as well. We can see how important this whole company and next project is for us, but actually many other companies as well who are pioneering to do very good future with the new technology as well. Thank you, Business Finland. Thank you for the GEA. Thank you for the Fortum. Thank you also for the Ambrosia Collective for the launch. Of course, we have still Ajinomoto and Fazer and many others who are working. We actually didn't mention all details now because we focused actually what are really new development in the first half year. But looks good. We are progressing in this commercialization.
We are progressing in industrialization, and that will continue. I believe there's a lot of good questions coming to us. Maria Rämö, I hope you will come over here.
Thank you.
You take this and prepare to, let's go for the Q&A part.
Yes. Thank you, Rami. We have received plenty of questions, so let's get going. The first question is for you, Rami. Has Ambrosia Collective's Planta product success increased the interest in Solein amongst CPG companies? Should we expect this to lead to a pickup in new orders?
Great question. We know that these big CPG companies, health and performance companies, they have been asking us to organize also the Ambrosia Collective Planta ready-to-mix for products for them because they like to taste as well, how it works now, and because it's available. I know that there was the event in Chicago recently where this is a big, big topic that new food ingredients coming to the market available publicly for the consumers. I know that was really discussed among the participants in the IFT in Chicago as well. So, answer is yes.
Thank you. Another one for you. What are currently the main concerns of customers that are currently considering making Solein orders in the U.S.?
Okay. Difficult question. I do not know all the plans for our customers. The smaller the companies, they might actually be fast both directions. I know that the bigger companies, health and performance companies, and CPG companies, it is very steady, the development what we do, very clear plan, actually, how it works. I can only comment that we are progressing very well. I am happy to report more with the company name and what is achievement at the end, what is coming. That I can comment. I am excited. Absolutely. My excitement and the energy is coming when I see the customers, the consumers, they feel there is something unique now. We are helping their value proposition. We are helping them to grow the business.
Thank you. Will you make the investment decision for Factory 02 this year?
Yeah. We keep our communicated publicity. Based on this information what we have at the moment and offtake discussions as well, expectation for the EFSA opinion. This is the situation where we are today now.
To continue a little bit on that topic, Ilkka, how does the company's recent funding progress the investment decision for Factory 02?
If I kind of take a historical view on this, and reflect a little bit, while we have been on the road and raising these funds, the question sometime has been, is this company ever capable to raise this amount of money to execute the funding plan and the growth strategy? But I think that Finnish government is absolutely strongly supporting us whenever we are ready for the FID. FID itself is the kind of main condition for this to draw down these funds, grants, and debt from Business Finland. But they remain committed as well as we, so it's very important milestone in that sense. And raises the confidence level also in the eyes of our strategic partners and customers that this company really can scale also from the funding point of view.
Thank you, Ilkka. Another one for you. Please comment the movement of the share price at the stock exchange. How far are the stockholders diversified?
Well, of course, this is a question that has to be bypassed according to the lawyers and advisors. We are not commenting on the share price. Market determines what is the fair value of the company on every single minute. That's why we are also listed, and we, of course, continue to monitor it.
Thank you. Then a question for Rami. When will you get the regulatory approval in the EU and the U.S.?
Okay, let's talk about European Union first. Personally, on behalf of our leadership, a lot of work is done, a lot of visits in Brussels, meeting decision makers, and building what is the opportunity for the competitiveness or for the whole Europe to have a Solar Foods type of the companies, a new ingredient. This is a food sovereignty, what I was talking about. The result is not in our hands, the decision is by the EFSA scientific opinion, and then later European Union. I have to say that a lot of my agenda has been in ensuring an active work with the European Union that we will get this scientific opinion. We have answered all the questions, so now we expect to get answer and positive answer from the EFSA when they are ready to release it.
U.S., we have a self-GRAS, so we are able to bring the product to the market already, like you can see, and that was a key milestone. This no-question letter what we applied one month ago, because this is the highest level of the regulatory evaluation. It has taken perhaps a bit more time, and it's not in our hands, FDA, what kind of resources they have and how their pipeline is there. We expect that process that we are part of that as well. Publicly, if you take a look, are we in a queue, are we not? We expect to be now in the final queue, where they start to go through those applications very soon as well.
Thank you, Rami. You mentioned progress in turning LOIs into binding offtake agreements. Could you shed some light on the progress happening behind the scenes to help us outsiders understand and appreciate the ongoing work?
I will take a concrete example without disclosing, of course, the name of the huge company. The application development, because you have the five phases, what I presented, and the introduction and the positioning, and then application development. The application development, one of this huge company, they commented, can we help them and give prototypes and concepts as well. So we developed in three months, 26 different sub-concepts based on their ingredients, what the ingredient list what they had. Then of course, we need to multiply that as well, the stability point of view, the other 26 times. So we really dedicated our resources to make this perfect. Then there was now over the summer meeting where we reviewed, okay, how is our concepts? Feedback was very good.
So really the feedback was now we have progressed and helped as well that company to understand what you can do with the Solein ingredient and how good is a Solein as well. Like I commented, this was a protein bars where we are using. So this is a work what we need to do. The company, all levels, the highest boardroom C-level leaders, but also the application development and quality department, all they need to be happy with our ingredient. That's the work what we are doing. Confirming that, yes, everybody feels, and now this application recipe is ready, and now actually let's go to launch plans and how we are launching which market. This is the seasonal launch or limited launch is what we are doing.
We are progressing it, but I cannot comment before that we have a really tangible logo there and actually something unique figures to announce. Once those are coming, you can expect that this will come immediately out, but we have very good discussions with many of those huge companies indeed.
Great.
I hope this will help the understanding what kind of work we are doing.
And also good to know that these customers and companies are following very closely what is happening on the regulatory front.
So what EFSA's opinion is being very rigorously awaited by these customers. One of the highest level authorities in the world issuing a scientific opinion on the product safety is certainly something that they monitor very closely, because that then affects also acceptances and processes outside European Union. That is also important to keep in mind. EFSA is also very major lever in this sense.
Thank you. Let's take one more question. Rami, what are the next steps in Solein's commercialization journey?
There's three very key. Continue launching more in the U.S. together with Ambrosia Collective, like I commented, but other brands as well. So fast-moving, get the consumer feedback. Then open the market in Europe. That's our biggest strategy because our home market and all the work what we have done several years, many of the customers, like Ilkka Saura was commenting, it come to tangible. And then a third one, these offtakes. The big volumes for the Factory 02. So what we have been working and investing heavily to make these applications ready and the products that are ready that you can see that this is the product concept what our big customers could actually then launch. And then we have volume commitments. And then this is leading us towards this final investment decision for Factory 02. So those three are the key in the centerpiece.
And there's one more time, this company, our key focus is commercial. Commercial make a success. This is coming through this application and ingredient performance, and this value proposition what I presented. To make sure that those really are fully understood but also used to benefit our customers and consumers, and consumers excite the Solein best products later.
Thank you, Rami. Thank you, Ilkka.
Thank you everybody in the audience. This concludes our webcast. Thank you very much for joining and see you next time again. Have a great rest of the day.