SuperMeat Secures $3 Million In Funding For Lab-Grown Chicken Meat

January 15th, 2018 by The Beam

Israel-based biotech and food-tech startup SuperMeat has just secured a tasty $3 million in seed funding to help it on it mission to produce lab-grown ‘clean’ meat for the masses. The round was led by US-based venture capital fund New Crop Capital and mission-oriented venture capital firm Stray Dog Capital.

The SuperMeat investment is the latest in a series of cash injections for similar companies who are trying to transform the industry by growing meat in a laboratory rather than through traditional farming and slaughter methods. Memphis Meats is probably the most well-known company in the area, partly due to the fact it counts high-profile figures like Richard Branson and Bill Gates as backers.

Clean meat has multiple benefits

SuperMeat is working primarily on producing clean chicken products, which are created by extracting cells from a chicken and then growing these in a laboratory environment. The benefits of generating meat in this way rather than via farming are multitudinous and vast. Compared to traditional methods, so-called clean meat results in much lower greenhouse gas emissions, uses less agricultural land, and requires much less water.

Meat consumption rates and the demand for meat are continually increasing worldwide. Lab grown meats offer a potentially perfect solution to the challenges caused by this trend. At present the cost of producing clean meat is one aspect that is holding back full throttled progress, but with the investment into the area we can expect these costs to drop.

Our nutrition needs to be more sustainable and less carbon intensive if we are to reduce the negative impact our diets are having on the environment. There may be a meat tax on the horizon (sounds far off, but early discussions in countries like Denmark, Sweden, and Germany have started) to help tackle the issue and encourage people to eat a more vegetarian and vegan diet. This strategy, in combination with the advent of clean meat, could be key elements of the revolution that worldwide eating habits arguably need.











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