The mission of the company, formerly known as Artemys Foods, has just gotten a big venture capital boost.
A $22 million Series A round was led by a16z. The company has received $29 million in funding since it was founded in 2019. March and Gora co-founded and led Conversocial and iPlatform, respectively.
The creation of food using plant-based proteins and cultivated meat, which is genuine animal meat made by cultivating animal cells, is cooking right now. According to the Good Food Institute, alternative and cultivated meat companies brought in $911 million in the first quarter of the year.
Some meat companies recently received funding. Unicorn Bio took in $3.2 million for hardware to scale the cell-cultivation process, while UPSIDE Foods took $400 million to get its chicken product ready for market. WeTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkia
UPSIDE Foods bites into $400M round to serve cultivated meat later this year
According to March, cultivated meat was going to be a winner in the food tech sector because it was closer to the real taste and texture than plant-based options. When he and Gora first looked at it, they realized that there would be cost challenges that would prevent cultivated meat from getting to price parity with traditional meat. They set out to find a solution.
Companies in the sector know that they have to replace 1% of beef to make an impact, because scale is a constant question mark when it comes to cultivated technology.
March explained to me that the company is solving for that by using both of the technologies, plant-based and real cultivated beef cells, in its approach. The company can make small changes to the cells so they grow larger.
We don't need to worry about tissue engineering, 3D printing or scaffolding if we take that approach. There is a lot of exciting research on all of these technologies, but no one knows how to scale them up. The second part that is unique to us is that we are taking a very focused cell line engineering approach, which is at the core of what we are doing, and that is the reason why we got invested in us.
According to March, the first product will be a burger that tastes amazing. By the end of the year, the company wants to be ready to take the product through regulatory approval and build a pilot biomanufacturing plant. He expects to sell the burger in a few years.
Since raising a small seed in 2020, the company has been working on the engineering of the cell line to lower the cost curve. March said that they have made a drastic reduction in the cost of producing ourselves at scale.
With a platform and intellectual property in a good place, March felt it was a good time to invest further in R&D, hiring additional employees and marketing. A 16,000- square-foot R&D facility has been moved by the company.
March said it would take a couple of years for the burger to be approved. The core process of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is included.
Here’s Y Combinator’s answer to cultivated meat’s scaling problem
He said that they were looking for an investor who would support them for the long term. It fit into that nicely. A lot of experience in biology and synthetic biology is one of the things they have. Being partners with them is pretty exciting.
"Many people, including Joshua and me, love a good burger, but want to be able to enjoy meat without contributing to climate change and related environmental and social consequences." By combining plant-based and cultivated meat, it is possible to overcome unsustainable costs and the mediocre taste of most plant-based meat. I believe that SCiFi Foods is poised to become one of the defining brands of this generation and reduce the impact of conventional meat production on our planet.
The company continues to research and speak with restaurants and grocery stores while it waits for the burger. March wants to get the product in restaurants first before doing food service and direct-to- consumer.
A general counsel at agtech startup Iron Ox will join the company's board. Pasek was previously an executive at two companies.
Is cell-cultured meat ready for prime time?
All Rights Reserved © 2024
