Cultivated meat start-up Meatable has raised $10 million in seed funding to accelerate the development of its first pork prototype.
The capital comes mainly from an existing investor base including BlueYard Capital, with supplemental funds from angel investors including Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of TransferWise, and Albert Wenger, managing partner at Union Square Ventures. The European Commission also contributed funds through its Eurostars Programme.
The investment brings Meatable’s total funding to $13 million.
“We’re excited to announce this new funding, which will enable us to expand our scaling and cost reduction teams and to accelerate development of our first prototype,” said Meatable co-founder and CEO Krijn de Nood.
“We believe no one should have to give up the meat they love – there is a way to satisfy the world’s appetite for meat without harming people, animals or the planet.”
According to Amsterdam-based Meatable, cultivated meat joins plant-based proteins as a potential solution to sustainably feeding the world’s growing population. The company said cultivated meat has the potential to use up to 96% less water and 99% less land than industrial farming.
Meatable’s technology can produce large batches of the cells needed to make meat in a matter of days to weeks. Only one cell is needed to start the process. The cell is sourced from a real animal in a completely painless way – and because it comes from an animal, the meat that can be made with it is real meat, not a processed substitute.
“Our mission is to become the leading choice for sustainably and efficiently produced meat,” de Nood added. “To achieve that mission, we will need to solve the cultivated meat industry’s scale-up challenge. We hope that the unveiling of our first prototype this summer will show that we are making real strides toward fulfilling our mission.”
Philippe Vanrie, head of the Eureka Association and responsible for the Eurostars-2 programme, said: “We are delighted that Meatable, a dynamic start-up in the cultivated meat sector, has the potential to develop a unique and innovative technology thanks to support received from the Eurostars Programme. We understand the technology developed will have a significant and positive impact on meat production and, in turn, on climate change.”
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