December 9, 2019

Dutch startup gets US$9.96 million to make alternate meat pork

Dutch startup Meatable has raised €9 million (US$9.96 million) in a seed round that will enable the company to host a tasting of its first prototype of lab-grown pork by summer 2020.

The fundraising was led by the German VC BlueYard Capital, which had participated in Meatable's previous €3 million (US$3.3 million) round last year. New investors include business angels Albert Wenger of Union Square Ventures and Taavel Hinrikus, founder of the European unicorn TransferWise. Part of the funding also comes from the EU's Eurostars Programme.

Meatable is developing a method to grow meat from a single animal cell. By taking animals out of the equation, this 'cultivated' meat could contribute to animal welfare while reducing greenhouse emissions, and land and water use.

The technology, developed at the University of Cambridge, allows the transformation of animal stem cells into muscle cells, which are important for mouthfeel, and fat cells, which contribute to the taste.  

"The new funds will be used to expedite the first prototype to the summer of 2020, and to allocate more resources to post-production and scaling," said Krijn de Nood, CEO of Meatable.

Meatable works with early-stage animal stem cells that have the potential to become any type of cell. The advantage is that these early-stage stem cells multipliy faster and indefinitely. "With these stem cells, we can create large quantities of cells with unprecedented consistency," said de Nood.

Controlling the outcome of these stem cells had proven a challenge until now. Meatable's technology allows the company to transform early-stage stem cells into the desired cell type with 100% efficiency.

Meatable will also be directing some of its funding towards the scaling up of its process and optimising the use of nutrients to reduce production costs of its lab-grown pork.

The goal is to open its first industry-scale plant by the beginning of 2025.

- Labiotech.eu