Future Meat Technologies announced this week that they raised $14 million to complete their Series A financing. Based in Israel, Future Meat Technologies is a startup that uses cellular agriculture to grow cell-based meat. By growing cells that become meat from an animal, Future Meat can make the same meat. Without requiring the animal.

Cellular agriculture is the field of producing animal products, like meat, directly from cell cultures instead of raising animals for the same products. Compared to the present animal agricultural system, cellular agriculture provides an alternative and sustainable way to produce the same animal products.

Investing in the Future of Food

Future Meat’s round of funding was co-led by S2G Ventures and Emerald Technology Ventures. Other investors in the round included Monde Nissin, Manta Ray Ventures, Tyson Ventures, and Bits x Bites. The round of funding brings Future Meat’s total funding to $16.2 million. In May 2018, Future Meat raised $2.2 million in seed funding.

Future Meat Technologies’ cell-based chicken meat (bottom) compared to conventional chicken meat (top)

For many of Future Meats’ investors, this is not the first time they have invested in the cellular agriculture ecosystem. In April, Monde Nissin led Singapore-based Shiok Meats’ $4.6 million seed round. Bits x Bites also invested in Shiok Meats’ seed round.

Another investor in Future Meat’s Series A was the venture arm of Tyson Foods, one of the world’s largest meat producers. Having co-led Future Meat’s seed round, this is Tyson’s second investment in the company. Tyson Foods previously invested in Memphis Meats in January 2018.

Future Meat Technologies’ funding round is the third cell-based meat (including seafood) company to announce their Series A in 2019. Aleph Farms, another Israeli startup, announced that they raised $12 million in May. Earlier this week, cell-based seafood company Wild Type also announced that the startup raised $12.5 million for their Series A round to develop cell-based salmon.

Conclusion

Future Meat plans to use the funding round to expand their R&D efforts and build “the world’s first cultured meat pilot production facility” south of Tel Aviv. They aim to have it operating in 2020. Pilot plant development is an important stepping stone to validate how the company’s production process will look like before moving to a larger facility. Currently, Future Meat Technologies state it costs approximately $150 to produce a pound of cell-based chicken and $200 to produce a pound of cell-based beef. They aim to reduce these costs before commercializing.

Future Meat initially plans to launch a cost-competitive hybrid product from their pilot plant facility in 2021. By combining plant-based protein with their cell-cultured animal fats, Future Meat believes they’ll produce a product that has the taste and aroma of animal meat. By 2022, Future Meat aims to launch a line of 100% cell-based meat products at the cost of less than $10 per pound.