With Tyson’s Help, This Cultured Meat Startup Raised A Record $347 Million

kebabs with vegan meat and vegetables

Future Meat Technologies (FMT), based in Israel, reported this week that it had concluded a $347 million Series B funding round, the largest investment in the cultured meat (also known as “cultivated” meat) industry to date. Agribusiness behemoth ADM spearheaded the investment through its venture capital arm ADM Ventures, with Tyson New Ventures (TNV), Tyson’s investing arm, also participating.

FMT uses various breakthroughs to produce its slaughter-free meat, allowing it to compete on price with traditional meat production methods. For starters, it creates meat from a blend of plant-based protein, cell-based meat, and lab-grown fat—a breakthrough that lowers the cost of creating animal meat from cells while retaining the flavor and texture of animal-derived meat.

FMT also saves money by using an animal-free serum as a growing medium and a proprietary cell rejuvenation method in which its steel fermenters collect waste and recycle up to 70% of nutrients, resulting in higher cell densities and lower expenses. Because of its unique approach, the business has been able to lower the price of its cultured chicken products to $7.70 per pound (or roughly $1.70 per 110-gram chicken breast), down from $18 per pound just six months earlier.

“We are incredibly excited by the massive support of our global network of strategic and financial investors… This financing consolidates Future Meat’s position as the leading player in the cultivated meat industry, just three years after our launch. Our singular technology reduced production costs faster than anyone thought possible, paving the way for a massive expansion of operations,” stated Professor Yaakov Nahmias, founder and president of FMT.

FMT has completed its first cultured meat plant in Israel, and plans to open a large-scale production facility in the United States in 2022. Singapore is now the only country in the world that has given grown beef products official approval. Other nations are anticipated to follow, and FMT is seeking regulatory permission in many areas in order to begin marketing its products to consumers and restaurants in the United States in 2022. FMT’s products include cultured chicken, slaughter-free lamb kebabs, and cell-based beef burgers.

Investing in Lab-Grown Meat

The expanding human population cannot continue to rely on traditional animal agriculture for nutrition due to environmental, ethical, and health concerns. In order for a move from traditional agriculture to new means of producing meat—whether from animal or plant sources—established industry veterans like Tyson, with its extensive distribution networks and influence, must participate in order to bring novel meat products to market in accessible ways. And the transformation has already begun.

Tyson’s investment in FMT’s Series B round comes after TNV’s $2 million investment in the business in 2018. Apart from Tyson, Nestlé has expressed an early interest in FMT’s goods and is considering putting its slaughter-free beef into its European Garden Gourmet brand once regulatory approval is received.

“While Future Meat is leading the pack as the fastest growing company in this space, I truly see the entire cultivated meat industry as a massive agent of change, creating a sustainable future for coming generations… It is our mission to create a more sustainable future for coming generations. Our technology can produce meat on a fraction of the land currently used for meat production,” Nahmias said.

Prior to FMT’s landmark $347 million round, the greatest investments in the cultured meat market included UPSIDE Foods’ $161 million raise in January 2020 (with Tyson and Cargill participating) and Eat Just’s $170 million raise for its cellular agriculture division GOOD Meat in May 2021.

Source: “THIS CULTURED MEAT STARTUP JUST RAISED A RECORD $347 MILLION WITH HELP FROM TYSON” by VegNews

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