Perfat Technologies (Finland) is commercialising a fibre‑reinforced oleogel platform that turns healthy, unsaturated vegetable oils into solid, functional fats designed to replace butter, palm and coconut oils across bakery, confectionery, plant‑based dairy and meat analogues, without adding saturated fat. The startup, spun out of the University of Helsinki in 2023 and led by CEO Jyrki Lee‑Korhonen, has raised €2.5m (Series A, Sept 2025) (co‑led by Newtree Impact and Beyond Impact) with prior backing from Nordic Science Investments, University of Helsinki Funds and Big Idea Ventures. It claims ~80% lower saturated fat, up to 30% fewer calories, and added dietary fibre, positioning its B2B fat ingredient as a drop‑in, label‑friendly alternative to tropical or animal fats.
Scientifically, Perfat’s approach leverages material physics and the wider oleogel body of research (notably work connected to the University of Helsinki) to structure liquid oils via fibre reinforcement, improving rheology and thermal behaviour to mimic the solid‑fat functionality needed for laminated doughs, shortenings, fillings and spreads. This sits within a competitive field (emulsions, interesterification, fully hydrogenated + interesterified blends, and emerging precision‑fermentation fats). Early desk research shows no directly attributable Perfat patent family in public databases; however, adjacent “fibre‑based oleogel” patents exist (e.g., A*STAR/WO2022060289), as do protein‑structured oleogels (e.g., Shiru/US11,896,687), implying an IP landscape where process know‑how, compositions, and application‑specific claims are the likely protectable layers for Perfat.
“No chemistry, just material physics.”
Perfat’s core promise to give liquid oils the structure and versatility of solid fats, while cutting saturated fat.
Manufacturing the “Perfect Fat”
On a crisp Helsinki morning, Perfat Technologies’ pitch is disarmingly simple: good fats are liquid; functional fats are solid, so what if you could make liquid fats behave like solid ones, without the baggage of saturated fat? Their answer is a fibre‑reinforced oleogel assembled through material physics, not hydrogenation chemistry. The company says the resulting fat keeps functionality, lowers saturated fat by ~80%, and reduces calories by up to 30%, with added fibre, helping reformulated products jump NutriScore grades.
Perfat emerged in 2023 as a University of Helsinki spin‑out, drawing on oleogel research associated with academic work led by scientists including Fabio Valoppi, and quickly moved from lab to B2B pilots. By March 2024 it had seeded and was reportedly generating ~€300k in annual revenue; by September 2025, it closed a €2.5m Series A to scale production. The message to manufacturers: keep your recipes’ performance, lose the saturated fat.
How Fibre‑Reinforced Oleogels Work
Oleogels are structured oil systems where a three‑dimensional network traps liquid oil, yielding solid‑like behaviour at room temperature. The network can be built using waxes, polymers (e.g., ethylcellulose), proteins, crystals, fibres, or multi‑phase architectures. The University of Helsinki group has been active in engineering oleogels with tunable rheo‑mechanical properties and digestibility, experimenting with bead‑in‑oleogel and droplet‑in‑oleogel architectures and using modelling/digital twins to map how processing (e.g., ultrasound) affects crystal density and stress distribution.
Perfat’s messaging emphasises “no chemistry, just material physics”, suggesting physical structuring routes and food‑grade fibres as reinforcement rather than chemical modification. Industry coverage describes “fibre‑reinforced gelled vegetable oil” as the claimed world first.
Mechanistically, fibres act like rebar in concrete: high‑aspect‑ratio particles create a percolating scaffold that immobilises oil, supports plasticity for dough lamination, and controls oil release during baking or melting. This could mimic solid fat crystal networks (e.g., TAG crystals in butter/palm) while starting from high‑oleic, unsaturated oils (e.g., rapeseed, sunflower), improving lipid profiles.
The rebar analogy in five steps
- Choose oil (e.g., rapeseed): health‑forward, unsaturated. Goal: solid‑like functionality.
- Disperse/structure with fibres → a 3D scaffold forms within the oil phase.
- Network percolation → the gel yields under shear yet holds shape at rest (shortening‑like).
- Thermal tuning → melting/softening adjusted to match butter/palm SFC windows.
- Application fitting → lamination, creaming, aeration, spreadability without saturated fat.
What Can It Replace—and Where?
Perfat positions its ingredient across bakery, confectionery, plant‑based dairy and meat, highlighting early proof in bakery fillings and spreads, and claims to have already replaced palm oil in many products under trial conditions. For food formulators, the key tests are aeration, shortening behaviour, lamination, fat bloom control in confectionery, freeze–thaw stability, and sensory parity. Perfat’s public narrative says it passes these in multiple categories and is “market‑ready with no additional regulatory hurdles.” (As always, specific formulations and markets dictate labelling and any novel ingredient checks.)
Markets, Money and Momentum
In September 2025, Perfat announced a €2.5m Series A, co‑led by Newtree Impact and Beyond Impact, with Nordic Science Investments, University of Helsinki Funds and Big Idea Ventures participating, capital earmarked for production scale‑up and B2B launch. This follows a seed round in March 2024. Multiple trade outlets and investor notes cite the platform’s capital‑light, off‑the‑shelf equipment scalability and a B2B ingredient business model.
The broader backdrop favours functional and sustainable ingredients, a market that industry reports peg at ~$129bn by 2025, a data point widely paraphrased in coverage of Perfat’s raise and positioning. While figures vary by methodology, the direction of travel is unambiguous: reformulation budgets at multinationals, palm oil risk mitigation, and nutrition score pressure add up to a commercially attractive on‑ramp for a functional fat that can drop‑in across SKUs.
Competitors and the Alternatives to Alternatives
If structured fat is the problem, there are several families of answers:
- Oleogels, broadly: Many routes exist; waxes, ethylcellulose, proteins, fibres, crystal engineering, sometimes with ultrasound‑assisted structure control. Academic and industrial IP is rich and scattered, and solutions must balance functionality, clean label, cost, and scalability.
- Protein‑structured oleogels: Notably, Shiru, Inc. holds US 11,896,687 B1 for protein‑microstructured oleogels designed to replace structured fats, highlighting a different scaffold (protein fibrils/sheets/particles) with tuned oil release.
- Fibre‑based oleogels (adjacent): A*STAR (Singapore) discloses WO2022060289 for citrus/nata de coco fibre routes to form oleogels via emulsion + freeze‑dry steps—evidence that “fibre‑reinforced oil structuring” has more than one viable recipe in the literature/patent space.
- Emulsions & gelled emulsions: Often effective but can struggle to fully replicate shortening behaviours in laminated doughs and high‑shear processes; label complexity and water activity are factors.
- Interesterified fats (chemical/enzymatic): Powerful for tuning SFC curves and melting profiles, but the end product may not meet every clean‑label or perception constraint.
- Fully hydrogenated + interesterified blends: Common in bakery shortenings; reduce trans fats but retain saturation and may conflict with palm‑free strategies. (Industry context.)
- Precision‑fermentation lipids: Emerging players aim to biosynthesise tailored TAGs (e.g., cocoa butter equivalents, structured fats), promising functionality but facing CAPEX, COGS, and regulatory runways. (Industry context.)
Perfat’s distinct pitch is the fibre‑reinforcement pathway combined with “off‑the‑shelf” process scalability and drop‑in performance. The company also insists the product is market‑ready, a substantive differentiator versus many novel‑lipid ventures still navigating GRAS/EFSA hurdles.
IP Landscape
A desk search across WIPO/Patentscope, Google Patents, USPTO and EPO surfaces no Perfat‑assigned patents that are publicly visible at the time of writing. That does not mean Perfat lacks IP; applications can be unpublished (18‑month window), filed under holding entities, or protected as trade secrets. What is visible are adjacent filings for fibre‑based and protein‑structured oleogels, underscoring that claim scope (specific fibre types, processing steps, oil/fibre ratios, microstructures, application claims) will be the battleground. For now, Perfat’s know‑how, process conditions, and application optimisation look like critical, protectable assets alongside any pending filings.
Where the Rubber Meets the (Bakery) Floor
Perfat is B2B. The immediate beachhead is bakery (shortenings, fillings, laminated doughs) and spreads, where fat phase dominates structure and where palm/butter substitution hits both nutrition and sustainability goals. Coverage suggests a capital‑light production approach using standard equipment, which should reduce scale‑up friction and enable toll manufacturing partnerships, although no public facility or toller is named. The CEO highlights early replacements for palm oil in bakery products under trials. As always, sensory, shelf‑life, cost‑in‑use, and line compatibility will be the buyers’ decision gates.
Risks, Unknowns and the Path to Proof
- IP defensibility: With adjacent fibre‑based oleogel patents already public, Perfat’s claim scope needs to be distinct (materials, methods, microstructures, or applications). Until published filings appear, outsiders must assume a blend of trade secrets + pending claims.
- Performance at scale: Bench and pilot wins need to carry through industrial mixers, laminators, proofers and ovens. Oil migration, fat bloom, melting profiles, and freeze–thaw resilience will be scrutinised by QA teams.
- COGS vs. palm/butter: Buyers will tolerate some premium for nutrition and palm‑free claims, but cost‑in‑use must align with mainstream price ladders, especially in bakery fats where margins are thin.
- Regulatory & labelling nuance: While the firm says no additional regulatory hurdles, labelling (e.g., naming the fat/oleogel, fibre source) and country‑specific claims require case‑by‑case review.
“We can work with any vegetable oil, and we give it the structure of a solid fat.”
Perfat’s CEO, on the platform’s oil‑agnostic promise.
What to Watch Next
- Published patents (if any): Monitor WIPO/Patentscope and EPO for filings naming Perfat Technologies Oyor inventors connected to the Helsinki group (18‑month publication lag).
- First commercial launches: Look for bakery or spreads SKUs in Nordics/EU carrying palm‑free plus lower saturated fat and added fibre claims tied to Perfat. (Trade media tracking.).
- Scale announcements: Any toll‑manufacturing or plant commissioning news confirming tonne‑scale output. (Investor and trade press.).
- Comparative data: Independent SFC curves, DSC thermograms, and sensory panels vs. palm/butter/coconut in target applications. (Academic–industry collaborations.).
APA References
- Fi Global. (2024, June 7). Manufacturing ‘the perfect fat’ with oleogel technology. Informa Markets. https://insights.figlobal.com/foodtech/manufacturing-the-perfect-fat-with-oleogel-technology
- Food Ingredients First. (2025, September 16). Perfat Technologies CEO: Substituting traditional solid fats with healthy lipid-based solutions. https://www.foodingredientsfirst.com/news/healthy-fat-alternatives-perfat-technologies.html
- Nordic Science Investments. (2025, September 10). Perfat Technologies, a food deep-tech startup, raises €2.5m to address the global problem of unhealthy fats. https://nordscience.fi/perfat-technologies-a-food-deep-tech-startup-raises-e2-5m-to-address-the-global-problem-of-unhealthy-fats/
- OpenCorporates. (2023, July 3). Perfat Technologies Oy (Company No. 3369286-7). https://opencorporates.com/companies/fi/3369286-7
- Oxford Academic (Food Science and Technology). (2024, March 6). A new era of healthy fats (Vol. 38, Issue 1, pp. 46–51). https://academic.oup.com/fst/article/38/1/46/7738136
- PRH – Finnish Patent and Registration Office. (n.d.). Virre Information Service – Company search. https://www.virre.prh.fi/novus/companySearch?userLang=en
- Vegconomist. (2025, September 12). Perfat Technologies raises €2.5M to replace saturated fats with healthy & functional alternatives. https://vegconomist.com/investments-finance/investments-acquisitions/perfat-technologies-raise-replace-saturated-fats-healthy-functional-alternatives/
- WIPO – Patentscope. (2022, March 24). WO/2022/060289 – Fibre-based oleogel. https://patentscope2.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2022060289
- Google Patents. (2024, February 13). US 11,896,687 B1 – Oleogel having a protein microstructure with optimised oil release properties. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/d7/bd/69/a5f8eaeb3650ec/US11896687.pdf
- FoodBev Media. (2025, September 11). Finnish start-up Perfat Technologies raises €2.5m to revolutionise healthy fats. https://www.foodbev.com/news/finnish-start-up-perfat-technologies-raises-2-5m-to-revolutionise-healthy-fats
- Perfat Technologies. (2025). Perfat Technologies Oy – Healthier and more sustainable fats. https://perfat.com/
- LinkedIn. (n.d.). Perfat Technologies. https://www.linkedin.com/company/perfat-technologies
