August 2023: The Month in Review

Following July’s historic launch of cultivated meat products in the US, this August continued the cellular agriculture field’s strong summer. From notable funding rounds for various cellular agriculture food companies, this month also showed progress for players producing a range of products from meat to collagen to palm oil.

From investments and partnerships to regulatory progress in bringing precision fermentation dairy to the US, we look at what happened this August in cellular agriculture.

Investments

Meatable

Meatable announced that the Dutch cell-based meat startup raised $35 million in Series B funding.

According to the announcement, Meatable’s funding round was led by Agronomics and featured an investment of $17 million from the Dutch impact fund Invest-NL. Previous investors in the funding round include BlueYard Capital, Bridford Group, and DSM Venturing.

Meatable's cell-cultured pork sausage

With $95.5 million in total funding, the latest financing makes Meatable the top-funded cell-based meat and cellular agriculture food company in Europe to date.

In March 2021, Meatable raised $47 million in Series A funding, the largest Series A round at the time for a cell-based meat company. In December 2019, Meatable raised a $10 million seed extension round and a $3.5 million seed round in September 2018.

Among the top-funded cultivated meat companies, Meatable is the first to disclose a Series B funding round smaller than its Series A financing. Considering the current investment landscape for startups, the company acknowledged it is a challenging time to raise capital.

Meatable plans to use the funding round to scale the company’s production process and accelerate to commercial launch. In May 2023, Meatable claimed to have developed the fastest production platform for a cultivated meat company to produce its pork meat in only eight days.

The company aims to scale its production platform to use 50,000-liter bioreactors. At the time of the breakthrough, Meatable used 50-liter bioreactors and is currently scaling up to 500-liter bioreactors.

In addition, Meatable shared its plan to launch in select restaurants in Singapore by the end of 2024, pending regulatory approval, and plans to expand into retail by 2025.

Following its partnership announcement in October 2022, Meatable shared that it started production rounds with Singaporean CDMO Esco Aster on the ground and began co-developing its hybrid product range with plant-based meat company Love Handle.

Meatable also stated its plans to establish a presence and launch in the US in 2025 after Singapore. The company did not share whether it has already submitted a regulatory dossier in the US.

Jellatech

Beyond dairy and meat, cellular agriculture can produce a range of animal proteins directly from cells. This week, Jellatech announced that the cell-based collagen and gelatin startup raised $3 million in seed funding.

Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Jellatech aims to unlock the full functionality of collagen and gelatin by growing and harvesting the protein directly from animal cells.

Jellatech team

According to the announcement, Jellatech’s funding round was led by byFounders and featured investments from Milano Investment Partners, Joyful VC, Siddhi Capital, and Bluestein Ventures.

The funding round brings Jellatech’s total funding to $5.5 million. In April 2021, Jellatech raised $2 million in pre-seed funding, the largest pre-seed round at the time for a cellular agriculture startup.

Moving forward, Jellatech plans to use the funding round to accelerate its research efforts and scale the production of its platform. In June 2022, Jellatech announced the development of a triple-helical, full-length, and bioidentical cell-based bovine collagen protein.

More recently, in March 2023, Jellatech developed a full-length, bioidentical, and functional human collagen protein. During a previous CellAgri Webinar Series Event session, Jellatech shared its intention to explore biomedical applications of its cell-based human collagen.

When explaining the significance of producing full-length collagen, Jellatech co-founder and CEO Stephanie Michelsen previously explained the importance of its animal cell platform in developing the structure of a collagen protein for complete functionality.

“For proteins, structure equals functionality. If you don’t have the proper structure, you will never have the same functionality…You can make parts of the collagen protein in bacteria [and microorganisms], but that will not give you the full functionality of the collagen protein.

“If you want to use collagen for biomedical applications, for example, you need fully functional collagen. If someone needs a coating for a biomedical implant to make it better absorbed by the body, you need the collagen to be triple-helical. You need it to be full-length.”

Clean Food Group

Clean Food Group announced that the cell-cultured oils and fat company raised an additional £2.3 million in funding. According to the announcement, the startup received investments from industrial food specialists Doehler Group and Alianza.  Investment firm Agronomics, which previously led Clean Food Group’s seed funding round in August 2022, also participated in the funding round.

In addition to the investments, Doehler Group and Alianza announced strategic collaborations with Clean Food Group to develop and scale its cell-cultured oil products, such as rapidly scaling its fermentation process to a commercial level and manufacturing batches for regulatory approval later this year.

Vivici

New startup Vivici announced closing its seed funding round to develop cell-cultured dairy proteins via precision fermentation. While the funding was undisclosed, Vivici shared that the round was backed by Dutch multinational DSM and dairy corporate Fonterra.

Incorporated last year as a spinoff from DSM and Fonterra, Vivici aims to leverage the two corporates’ expertise in scaling bioprocesses and knowledge of dairy proteins. The startup is based in the Netherlands in the Biotech Campus Delft. Fonterra and DSM first planned to co-launch a cell-cultured dairy protein startup in August 2022.

Imagindairy Receives GRAS Status for its Whey Dairy Protein in the US

In August, cellular agriculture company Imagindairy announced that it received self-affirmed GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status for its cell-cultured dairy protein product to launch in the US.

With self-affirmed GRAS status, Imagindairy can launch its precision fermentation-derived dairy protein product in the US. Imagindairy previously stated its first product would be a cell-cultured whey protein.

Imagindairy's new headquarters in Haifa, Israel

The company aims to partner with food and beverage manufacturers to use its product as an ingredient to produce dairy products, such as milk, cream cheese, and yogurt. Imagindairy has also submitted its notification to the US FDA about its self-affirmed GRAS Status.

In addition, Imagindairy launched its new headquarters and facility in Haifa, Israel, to support the next phase of the company’s growth. In particular, the new facility includes a fully operational pilot line to test conditions similar to those in large-scale fermentation processes.

The regulatory milestone makes Imagindairy the third precision fermentation dairy company to receive self-affirmed GRAS status in the US after Perfect Day and Remilk, the two top-funded precision fermentation dairy companies globally.

In April 2020, Perfect Day received its no-objection letter from the US FDA to launch its cell-cultured whey protein through partnerships with ice cream producers. Perfect Day received self-affirmed GRAS in 2019 before launching a limited release of the first cell-cultured dairy ice cream.

Similarly, Remilk received self-affirmed GRAS status in the US in June 2022 for its cell-cultured whey protein product and received a letter of no questions from the US FDA in February 2023. Since receiving approval, Remilk has not yet launched a product to market.

Interestingly, compared to Perfect Day ($711 million) and Remilk ($131.3 million), Imagindairy is not among the top 5 funded precision fermentation dairy companies, with $28 million in disclosed funding.

As a result, by receiving self-affirmed GRAS status, Imagindairy highlights a route to market for companies in the precision fermentation industry without needing to be one of the top-funded players.

In April 2023, Imagindairy received an undisclosed investment from dairy giant Danone’s venture arm, Danone Manifesto Ventures. The investment is part of a broader partnership for the companies to develop cell-cultured dairy products.

Aleph Farms Submits Regulatory Dossier in the UK

Following its regulatory submission in Switzerland at the end of July, cell-based meat company Aleph Farms announced submitting its regulatory dossier for regulatory approval in the UK. According to the company, the regulatory application marks the first time a cultivated meat company submitted its application to the UK Food Safety Authority.

While Aleph Farms believes the UK may take a couple of years before giving regulatory approval, the mark signals Aleph Farms' intention to launch its cell-based beef steaks in different European markets as soon as possible. To date, only Singapore and the US have given regulatory approval for selling cell-cultured meat.

Perfect Day Announces Plan to Sell The Urgent Company

Cellular agriculture dairy company Perfect Day agreed to sell its consumer-facing arm, The Urgent Company, to new food tech company Superlatus for $1.25 million.

Having previously announced its intention to sell The Urgent Company in July, the deal includes The Urgent Company’s Coolhaus, Brave Robot, Modern Kitchen, and California Performance brands, as well as its global trademarks, including in the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, and China.

Brave Robot's ice cream product line

The top-funded cellular agriculture food company with over $700 million in financing, Perfect Day’s plan to sell The Urgent Company and its four brands in the US for $1.25 million suggests that the company was looking to exit the direct-to-consumer business as fast as possible.

The company previously claimed it achieved its goal of demonstrating consumer interest in cell-cultured dairy protein products. It now plans to focus on selling its precision fermentation dairy proteins as an ingredient to other food companies.

Considering the slowing investment landscape, it’s likely that Perfect Day’s investors wanted to see the company focus entirely on building its B2B business, including its enterprise biology services, as the company looks to raise a Series E funding round.

Moving forward, Superlatus plans to launch a range of plant-based products and snacks through the acquired brands under The Urgent Company. Superlatus announced its first product will be a plant-based protein snack under the Brave Robot brand.

The acquisition announcement did not clarify whether Superlatus would continue using cell-cultured dairy proteins in the acquired brands and products and, if so, whether Perfect Day would be the source of the cell-cultured whey proteins.

It’s important to note that Perfect Day has only agreed to sell The Urgent Company and that the sale, including its price, has not been finalized and has not yet gone through.

CellX Launches Cultivated Meat Pilot Facility in China

Chinese cell-based meat company CellX announced that it opened its pilot plant in Shanghai at the start of August. According to the company, the pilot plant currently hosts one 2,000L bioreactor line and has the capacity to hold multiple lines. CellX claims that the pilot facility can produce a couple of tonnes of cultivated meat annually.

 Moving forward, CellX shared that the company plans to submit regulatory applications in both Singapore and the US this year and aims to launch its first cultured meat products to market in select restaurants in 2025. CellX shared that its costs for its cell-based meat are around $100 per pound at the current scale and that it aims to reduce it further.

New Culture Scales Precision Fermentation Casein Dairy Protein Platform

Cellular agriculture dairy company New Culture announced a new scaling milestone for its precision fermentation protein platform. New Culture shared scaling its platform to produce “25,000 pizzas’ worth of cheese per run”.

New Culture's mozzarella cheese

The company claims this is the first time cell-cultured casein has been made at this large scale. New Culture stated its new large-scale production reduces product costs by 80%. New Culture aims to be at price parity with conventional mozzarella cheese within three years by producing its cell-cultured casein at a volume of 14 million pizzas worth of cheese.

In May 2023, New Culture announced a partnership with Nancy Silverton to launch its cell-cultured mozzarella cheese first at Silverton’s Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles in 2024.

Omeat Launches Cell Culture Media Supplement Plenty

Cell-based meat company Omeat announced the launch of its B2B Arm to start commercial sales of Plenty, the company’s proprietary cell culture media supplement.

According to the announcement, Plenty is Omeat’s replacement for fetal bovine serum, a key component of traditional cell culture media formulations in biomedical research and industries. Omeat claims Plenty is just as effective as FBS and available for a fraction of the cost.

Plenty is sourced through Omeat’s process of extracting cell culture media ingredients like growth factors from the plasma of living cows on its farm in a procedure similar to human plasma donations.

In June 2023, Omeat came out of stealth mode with $40 million in funding to produce cultivated ground beef products.

Umami Meats Rebrands to Umami BioWorks

Singaporean cell-cultured seafood startup Umami Meats announced that the company rebranded to Umami BioWorks. According to the announcement, having focused on developing seafood cell lines and serum-free cell culture media formulations, the company now aims to develop a unified engineering platform to scale the cultivation of animal and seafood cells by developing “novel cell cultivation inputs and processes” through its machine learning-based optimization platform, Alkemyst. In addition, Umami BioWorks shared that the company set up a new office in Tokyo, Japan.

South African Cultured Meat Startups Rebrand

Over the summer, South African cell-cultured meat startups rebranded from Mogale Meat and Mzansi Meat to WildBio and Newform Foods, respectively. In addition to the rebranding, Newform Foods announced its plans to open a commercial hub in the UK this year while maintaining a research facility in Cape Town, South Africa.

In March 2023, South African precision fermentation dairy startup De Novo Dairy rebranded to De Novo Foodlabs and announced its plans to move the company to London, UK.

Umami BioWorks Partners with Maruha Nichiro, Japan’s Largest Seafood Company

Umami Bioworks announced a partnership with Japan’s largest seafood company, Maruha Nichiro, to develop Japan’s cell-based seafood industry.

According to the partnership, Maruha Nichiro will invest in Umami Bioworks and gain access to its cell-cultured seafood technology platform. The partnership also includes collaborations to scale Umami Bioworks’ production process as well as a partner with global reach. 

Umami BioWork's cell-cultured seafood

Interestingly, according to the announcement, Maruha Nichiro worked on a joint R&D project for cell-cultured seafood with domestic companies. Its investment in Umami Bioworks marks its first venture in a foreign cellular agriculture company.

Multus Distributes Cell Culture Media on Boca Scientific

Cell culture media startup Multus Biotechnology partnered with biotechnology supplier company Boca Scientific to distribute its animal-free cell culture media formulations.

Through the partnership, Boca Scientific lists Multus’ Proliferum and Vitronectin products as available to life science and biology research labs on its website. Multus previously launched its Vitronectin product in February 2023 and claims it can accelerate the growth and proliferation of cells.

More recently, in June, Multus Biotechnologies collaborated with cell-based meat CDMO Extracellular to launch low-cost, license-free cell banks to support early-stage companies and researchers.

Cult Food Science Announces Partnership with Pet Food Startup Everything But

Investment platform Cult Food Science announced a partnership with new South Korean cell-cultured pet food startup Everything But for Cult Food Science’s pet food brands.

While no timeline has been disclosed, Everything But will supply Cult Food Science cell-based chicken meat to use in its various dog and cat food brands, including Noochies! pet food and Marina Cat.

Earlier in August, Cult Food Science partnered with Singapore-based startup Umami Bioworks to develop a hybrid cell-cultured cat food containing Umami Biowork’s cell-cultured ocean snapper for its Marina Cat product brand.

PluriCell Looks to Develop Stem Cells for Cell-based Meat Production

The development of stable and immortal stem cell lines will be critical for the cell-based meat industry to scale production. New UK-based startup PluriCells launched at the University of Nottingham to develop embryonic stem cell lines to support the industry.

Founded by technology developed by Professors Ramiro Alberio and Austin Smith, PluriCells shared that the startup has developed sheep, pig, and cattle stem cell lines at food standards. By using embryonic pluripotent stem cells, the startup claims its cell lines are free from genetic modification and are effectively immortal.

The Better Butchers Look to Produce Cultured Meat in Canada

New Canadian startup The Better Butchers launched with plans to be the first startup to launch a cell-based meat product in the country. Focusing on cultivated pork sausages, meatballs, and marinated steaks, The Better Butchers ambitiously aims to launch its cell-based meat products through its butchery shop within two years in Vancouver, Canada.

While the new startup aims to launch its own cell-based meat butchery, Good Meat previously launched the first cell-based meat product in a butchery in Singapore in partnership with Huber’s Butchery in December 2022.

Wild Earth Launches its Pet Food in Petco

Cell-cultured pet food company Wild Earth announced a partnership with major pet food retailer PetCo to sell its plant-based dog food and treats. With approximately 1,500 stores, Wild Earth stated that PetCo would be its largest distributor and could double or triple its revenue from current projections. In June, Wild Earth also partnered with Zeigler’s Distribution to bring its pet food to the US Mid-Atlantic region.

Food Neophobia and Cultured Meat

Along with scaling production, public perception and acceptance of cell-cultured foods will be critical for the field’s success. A new study analyzing food technology neophobia on consumer attitudes toward cell-based meat found that neophobia strongly impacted consumer acceptance of cultured meat.

The study surveyed 727 people in Germany and examined their willingness to try it. Interestingly, in the context of neophobia, the study found that receiving information about the field’s benefits had no significant influence on people’s intentions to consume the novel products.

Conclusion: 10-Year Anniversary of the First Cultured Meat Burger

At the start of August, the cellular agriculture field reached a unique milestone in its brief history.

As of August 5th, it has been ten years since the showcase and tasting of the first lab-grown beef burger by Dr. Mark Post in London.

Since the first cell-cultured meat burger showcase a decade ago, we have seen an explosion of interest around the world over the last seven years. Scientists and entrepreneurs entered the field globally to work on transforming the future of food with cellular agriculture.

Along with startups working on making cell-based meat, we have also seen the emergence of an entire industry that uses microorganisms to produce animal proteins via precision fermentation (also known as acellular agriculture).

Since then, more than $4.5 billion has been invested in cellular agriculture food players to transform our food system. And there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.

To date, only two countries have given regulatory approval for the sale of cultivated meat: Singapore and the US.

While three additional markets (India, Israel, and Hong Kong) have also approved the sale of cell-cultured dairy proteins via precision fermentation, there is still a way to go before cellular agriculture foods are available globally.

In addition, in order to make cell-based meat commercially viable at a large scale, there are still many technical challenges to overcome through the field’s developing supply chain.

From cell line development and cell culture media formulations to creating viable large-scale bioreactors, we are seeing more startups emerge globally, focusing on developing the cell-based meat supply chain.

In the bigger picture, ten years after the first lab-grown burger showcase, the cellular agriculture field has come a long way but is still in its early stages.

And it will need to go even further to become part of our future food system.