Two years on from its US$14 million Series A funding round, Israel’s cultured meat company Future Meat Technologies has raised US$347 million in a Series B funding round. The firm claims to be the first cultivated meat company to have broken the commercial viability cost barrier. It opened the world’s first cultured meat production line in Israel earlier this year, and is now examining several locations in the U.S. for its projected large scale production facility.
Future Meat’s ground-breaking process utilises the rapid growth of connective tissue cells, called fibroblasts, to reach high densities before turning the cells to cultured muscle and healthy fats. Its proprietary technology is based on stainless steel fermenters which use lines of animal cells that grow forever without genetic modifications, removing the need to slaughter animals.
By continuously removing the waste products generated by these ‘immortal’ tissue cells the company is able to maintain a constant physiological environment which supports rapid, natural, proliferation of animal cells. The rejuvenating fermenters can recycle over 70% of the nutrients.
Industry-leading low cost cultured meat production
Since the invention of cultured meat as a concept, cost has been the largest hurdle in bringing it to cost parity with traditionally farmed meat. Future Meat says its connective tissue method is more efficient than other approaches that utilise stem cells, this it says has been a key factor in enabling the firm to achieve industry-leading low costs.
“We have consistently demonstrated that our single-cell technology and serum-free media formulations can reach cost parity faster than the market anticipates,” says Professor Yaakov Nahmias, founder and president of Future Meat “We also demonstrated that our proprietary media rejuvenation technology enables cell densities greater than 100 billion cells per litre, translating to production densities 10-times higher than the industrial standard.”
The company is now producing cultivated chicken breast for just US$7.70 per pound, or US$1.70 per 110-gram chicken breast, down from under US$18 per pound just six months ago. Future Meat also produces cultivated lamb, beef, and pork all with numerous environmental, health, and ethical benefits – cultured meat requires less land and water to produce and doesn’t require antibiotics.
“It is our mission to create a more sustainable future for coming generations. Our technology can produce meat on a fraction of the land currently used for meat production.” added Nahmias.
Future Meat’s Series B funding round
The round was co-led by ADM Ventures, the venture investing arm of ADM, a global leader in human and animal nutrition. It also included participation from a global investor in leading technology companies, the Menora Mivtachim pension and insurance fund which manages over US$85 billion in assets, and S2G Ventures. Other investors included industry leaders Tyson Ventures, the venture capital arm of Tyson Foods and Rich Products Ventures, Manta Ray Ventures, Emerald Technology Ventures, ADM Capital (Cibus Fund), and Bits x Bites. The company noted these investors represent massive support from key players in North America, Europe, and Asia.
“We are incredibly excited by the massive support of our global network of strategic and financial investors,” said Professor Nahmias. “This financing consolidates Future Meat’s position as the leading player in the cultivated meat industry, just three years after our launch. Our singular technology reduced production costs faster than anyone thought possible, paving the way for a massive expansion of operations. Our team will break ground on the first-of-its-kind, large-scale production facility in the United States in 2022.”
“We’re excited to expand our relationship with Future Meat and expand the universe of new sources of protein to consumers who are increasingly diversifying their diets,” said Ian Pinner, senior vice president of strategy and innovation, ADM. “Partnerships like these are one of the key ways ADM is creating and capturing new value in growth segments like alternative proteins, and we’re eager to support the Future Meat team in their efforts to continue developing ground-breaking solutions that will provide high-quality and scalable cultivated meat products to consumers in the years to come.”
