Participated · Equity · Jan 2023

Jimi Biotech is a China-based cultivated meat startup launched in 2021 that has developed cultivated beef and is working on “new forms” of meat. The company focuses on reducing public health risks, improving food safety, lowering environmental pollution, and addressing animal welfare through a sustainable, slaughter-free protein production chain. Jimi has developed a serum-free, animal-component-free culture media that the company says outperforms fetal bovine serum, and has reduced media costs by 20×. It has implemented a media recycling system that uses microorganisms to replace expensive media components and repurpose waste media, and reports advancements across myoblasts, feeder cell systems, and scaffolding. The company says it is prioritizing independent R&D and is not rushing short-term product launches as it continues to develop its technical platform.

Participated · Series A · May 2022

CellX develops cultivated pork, beef, and chicken using cellular agriculture and is working across cell lines, culture media, bioprocess and end-product development. The company reports it has secured an immortalized cell line and developed a low-cost media formula, and is prioritizing the taste and texture of whole-cuts rather than mincemeat. CellX plans to scale by optimizing its platform technologies and recruiting talent to drive down unit costs. It was founded in 2020 and is an active participant in regional industry groups such as the APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture. The company positions cultivated meat as a lower-resource, lower-emission alternative to conventional animal agriculture and highlights related environmental benefits. Financially, CellX has completed a $10.6M Series A and total investment to date now exceeds $15M. CellX develops cultivated pork using structured bio-printing, scaffolding prototypes and cell-culture methods, and is also exploring cultured fish. The company debuted whole-cut cultivated pork samples at a tasting event and showcased its technology at Brinc’s Virtual Demo Day. Founded in 2020, CellX is one of roughly three Chinese firms focused on culturing meat directly from animal cells and employs a science-led team of about 25 scientists. With the new funding, the startup plans to rapidly expand its team and form scientific partnerships to accelerate R&D. CellX positions its products as solutions to China’s pork supply challenges, food security concerns and carbon-reduction commitments. The company is navigating regulatory uncertainty and consumer-acceptance hurdles even as it advances prototypes and demonstrations. CellX is a newly formed China-based cultivated meat startup focused on accelerating development and production to move cell-based products out of the laboratory. The company raised an undisclosed amount to support scale-up and product development. The article places CellX within China's nascent cultivated-meat sector, which lags markets like Israel and the U.S. due to regulatory, technical and cost challenges. Industry observers cited by the article note swift progress among some Chinese teams, with production-efficiency gains reported by the Good Food Institute for a related developer. CellX's near-term priorities, as reported, are development and production scale-up rather than immediate commercialization. No investors, valuation, revenue, or founding-year details for CellX were disclosed in the article.