David Brandes is Co-Founder and CEO at Planetary, a Swiss bioeconomy company building global fermentation infrastructure to produce sustainable bio-based ingredients at industrial scale. Planetary operates a proprietary BioBlocks platform that enables the production of mycoprotein and other fermentation-based food ingredients.

David previously served as Chief Commercial Officer at Migros Online, worked as an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company, and co-founded Peace of Meat, a cell-based meat company that was acquired by MeaTech 3D in 2020 for approximately $18 million. He holds a Master of Science degree from Technische Universitat Berlin.

David was named WIPO GREEN Ambassador for Switzerland and Planetary's BioBlocks platform won the WIPO Global Awards for converting side streams into food. He co-founded Planetary with Ian Morrison, a former professor of bioprocess engineering at EPFL and HEIA-FR.

Planetary raised nearly 23 million euros in Series A funding (approximately 17 million euros in equity and 6.3 million euros in credit) led by Radikal Capital and Oetker Ventures, with participation from Royal Cosun, Astanor Ventures, and others. The company launched its mycoprotein filet with ALDI Suisse at price parity with conventional chicken.

Planetary operates an industrial-scale fermentation facility in Aarberg, Switzerland co-located with a sugar mill, producing mycoprotein ingredients under the Libre brand. The company is expanding globally with partnerships in India to produce mycoprotein below $1 per kilogram and aims to avoid 13 megatonnes of CO2 equivalents.