4 Innovations in Cultivated Meat
Graphic of the Week – 4 Innovations in Cultivated Meat
Cultivated meat companies are relentlessly focused on securing regulatory approval, and driving down costs, as the two key hurdles to secure a mainstream market, where we highlight four key areas of innovation.
Cultivated meat, also known as cell-based or lab-grown meat, is real meat produced from animal cells, taking a small sample of cells and growing these in nutrient-rich conditions, aiming to produce meat with a smaller environmental impact and zero cruelty (see our Graphic of the Week).
Four innovations:
Bioreactor Breakthroughs
Bioreactors are where the magic happens—growing real meat cells outside an animal. Advances in design are allowing larger, faster and more cost-effective production. Prolific Machines says its process can help create complex tissue products, and eliminate the need for growth factors. At New Food Finance, we report 30 companies focused on the optimisation of cultivated meat production.
Media Optimization
The nutrient-rich growth medium used for feeding cells is the main cost-driver. Scientists aim to cut costs by shifting from animal to plant-based ingredients and synthetic options. For example, Cellivate is developing culture media with nanotechnology that can increase the yield and is lower cost than animal-based media. At New Food Finance, we follow 20 companies whose main focus is developing growth media.
Scaffolding Solutions
Scaffolds give cultivated meat structure, including thicker cuts. Advances in edible, biodegradable scaffolds are making it easier to grow realistic textures and mimic the real deal. For example, Gelatex makes nanofiber scaffolds for cultivated meat out of a range of different materials such as alginate, a natural polysaccharide found in brown algae or PLGA, and a biodegradable synthetic polymer used in a range of medical devices. We report on 20 key players in the scaffolding sector, developing innovative structures to support the look, feel, and mouthfeel of cultivated meat products.
3D Bioprinting
3D bioprinting allows precise layering of different types of cells, creating complex textures, mimicking a steak, chicken breast, or even a tuna fillet. Steakholder uses two different, state of the art 3D printers to layer plant-based ingredients and cultivated cells to make marbled vegan steaks. We follow 10 companies exploring 3D bioprinting in cultivated meat.
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“Green Transition” Deals of the Week
At New Food Finance, our mission is to increase the profile of a global “Green Transition” in food production, highlighting relevant companies, investors, fund-raisings and prices.
Every day, we track new deals and companies, by trawling through tens of news websites, and through direct outreach.
In our “Green Transition” space last week, we saw 11 fundraisings worth $176 million, and 1 M&A deal.
United States, November 15 – Plantible raised $30 million for its process, growing lemna to extract RuBisCO protein, branded as Rubi Protein.
United States, November 15 – Farm Dog offers a digital crop scouting tool that aims to save time for farmers and agronomists, and was acquired by FarmQA, in an undisclosed M&A deal.
United States, November 14 – anu™ (previously gropod) produces a micro growing unit for herbs and greens, targeting residential customers, and received $0.2 million in grants from the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
France, November 14 – ELICIT PLANT produces a spray product based on phytosterols, to reduce evapotranspiration and stimulate root development, raising $47.4 million.
United States, November 14 – Innovafeed farms black soldier fly for aquafeed production, and received $11.8 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Belgium, November 14 – Zymofix focuses on circular agriculture by fermenting agricultural residues into microbial fertilizers, and raised $2.1 million.
United States, November 13 – Shiru uses machine learning and bioinformatics to mine a proprietary database of 450 million proteins for ingredient solutions, and raised $16 million.
Germany, November 13 – Klim has developed an app that seeks to help farmers transition to regenerative agriculture, and raised $22 million.
Finland, November 12 – Happy Plant Protein produces textured vegetable protein (TVP) directly from legume or cereal whole flours, and raised $1.9 million.
Spain, November 12 – Tebrio operates four vertical insect farms utilizing AI, robotics, and digital technologies, and raised $31.9 million.
Denmark, November 12 – NitroVolt has created a modular ammonia synthesis unit for farm-level fertilizer production using a patent-pending, lithium-mediated process, and raised $3.7 million.
Kenya, November 11 – Agventure Limited is a farmer-owned company championing sustainable practices in non-irrigated cereal-based systems in Kenya, and raised $9.5 million.
New Food Finance Resources
In the latest episode of our Podcast, we discuss how COP29 climate talks can bring agri-food front and centre of global climate action, with Serhat Cicekoglu of Sente Ventures.
November 12: Listen to our podcast here
Our Monthly Market Report aims to increase transparency around market news and prices in our “green transition” space:
November 6: Monthly Market Report – October
Our Deep-Dive Briefings each give the low-down on an emerging technology up-ending food production:
November 13: Bacteriophages in green agriculture
October 30: Sustainable Animal Feed Additives
October 15: Proteins as Biological pesticides