The Venture Codex

Participated · Series C · Apr 2022

Upside Foods, led by CEO Dr. Uma Valeti, is developing a way to grow real meat, poultry and seafood directly from animal cells without raising or slaughtering animals. The company raised $400M in a Series C to support commercialization and scale-up. Upside plans to use the funds to build a commercial production facility with a planned annual capacity of tens of millions of pounds of cultivated meat products and an initial focus on chicken. The facility is being designed to produce any species in both ground and whole-cut formats. Proceeds will also be used to build a supply chain for critical cell feed components to reduce costs and enable greater scale, and to invest in R&D for next-generation cultivated products. Other priorities include enhancing consumer education and continuing to grow its more than 170-person team; pending regulatory review, Upside expects to be available to U.S. consumers later this year. Memphis Meats develops methods to produce meat, poultry and seafood directly from animal cells without breeding or slaughtering animals. Led by co-founder and CEO Uma Valeti, M.D., the company demonstrated a cell-based meatball in February 2016 and a cell-based poultry product in March 2017. It plans to build a pilot production facility, continue growing its team, and launch products into the market. The company completed a $161m Series B and has raised more than $180m in total funding to date. The round also extends Memphis Meats’ coalition into Asia, which the company sees as a strategically valuable market. Memphis Meats develops cell-cultured “clean meat,” having already synthesized beef, chicken and duck in small-scale production. The company is focused on scaling production and lowering cost so meat can be grown at commercial scale. It envisions production facilities that resemble craft breweries where meat is grown, harvested and cooked rather than slaughterhouses. Current operations are small-scale and used for testing and development; the team tests many cell varieties and can produce enough meat to feed a family of four-to-eight for a big meal. Future product work includes targeting flavor profiles and consistencies to make the tastiest meat possible. The company presents the offering as actual meat produced directly from cells rather than plant-based substitutes. Memphis Meats positions the technology as a potential large-scale alternative to conventional animal agriculture. Memphis Meats develops biologically identical meat grown from animal cells in a lab, aiming to produce real meat without industrial animal slaughter. The company cultivates cells in dishes to create ground and, eventually, formed meats such as chicken breast, steak and potentially whole turkey. It positions its products as cruelty-free and more planet-friendly than conventional animal agriculture, citing water use and foodborne-illness concerns with traditional meat. Memphis Meats operates from a Bay Area lab and has produced prototype products (including video of a beef-like product). The company aims to get its “clean meat” products on shelves within the next five years and is working to prepare consumer acceptance. Financially, it has raised a $3 million seed round and is running an Indiegogo campaign that has brought in more than $52,000 from nearly 700 backers.

Participated · Equity · Feb 2021

Future Meat Technologies develops cultivated meat products (chicken, lamb, beef and pork) using proprietary single-cell lines, serum-free media formulations and stainless-steel fermenters that continuously remove waste and recycle nutrients. The company says its rejuvenating fermenters enable cell densities greater than 100 billion cells per liter, translate to production densities 10-times higher than the industrial standard, and can recycle over 70% of nutrients. Future Meat opened the world’s first cultivated meat production line in Israel earlier in the year and is scouting locations in the United States for a large-scale production facility. Management announced the company reduced the cost of cultivated chicken to $7.70 per pound ($1.70 per 110-gram breast), down from under $18 per pound six months earlier. The company positions its product as non-GMO, antibiotic-free, and more sustainable than traditional meat, and plans to break ground on a U.S. large-scale facility in 2022. Future Meat is headquartered in Rehovot, Israel. Future Meat Technologies builds proprietary technology to produce meat directly from animal cells using rapid proliferation of connective tissue cells in stainless steel fermenters that continuously remove waste. The company says its cultured chicken breast production cost has fallen to $7.50, and a quarter-pound serving is now single-digit cost. Its products combine cultured chicken and plant proteins to replicate the texture and aroma of farm-raised chicken and the company is also developing cultured lamb kebabs and beef burgers. Future Meat highlights the ability to produce cultured fat as an advantage over plant-protein approaches. It plans to market products to consumers and restaurants within 18 months and expects a pilot facility to start production in the first half of 2021 while seeking regulatory approval in several territories. The company emphasizes a non-GMO approach and no genetic engineering in its process. Future Meat Technologies develops a distributive, GMO-free cultured-meat platform that produces meat directly from animal cells without raising or harvesting animals. Its process leverages rapid growth of connective tissue cells (fibroblasts) to reach high densities before converting them to cultured muscle and fats. The company is pursuing hybrid products that combine plant proteins for texture with cultured fats for aroma and flavor, and plans a later line of 100% cultured meat. Current small-scale production costs are reported at $150 per pound for chicken and $200 per pound for beef. Future Meat intends to expand R&D and build a pilot production facility south of Tel Aviv, estimated to begin operations in 2020, with hybrid products targeted for competitive pricing by 2021. The company aims to reach a cost below $10 per pound for 100% cultured meat by 2022. Future Meat was founded in 2018 and is led by CEO Rom Kshuk with Prof. Yaakov Nahmias as Chief Scientist. Future Meat Technologies is developing a manufacturing technology to grow animal fat and muscle cells for lab-grown meat. The technology was first developed in the laboratories of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the company is working to commercialize scalable production. Founder and chief scientist Yaakov Nahmias says the team reduced production cost from about $10,000 per kilogram to roughly $800 per kilogram, with a roadmap to $5–10 per kg by 2020. The company says it can produce animal fat without harvesting animals and without genetic modification, which it argues is important for flavor. One of its pilot products is lab-grown chicken that chefs have used in recipes. Future Meat is focused on scaling bioreactors and moving away from reliance on fetal bovine serum to enable mass production.