Memphis Meats is one step closer to bringing cellular agriculture to consumers.
The cultured meat company recently announced it has raised $161 million in Series B funding, thanks in part to continuing investments from two traditional meat and agricultural companies, Tyson Foods and Cargill. The round is the largest funding moment for lab-grown meat so far.
Tyson Foods and Cargill joined the lengthy list of investors that included the SoftBank Group, private equity firm Norwest, Singapore’s state-owned investment company Temasek, celebrity business leaders Richard Branson and Bill Gates, Threshold Ventures, Finistere, Future Ventures, Kimbsal Musk, Fifty Years and CPT Capital.
"From our point of view, Cargill and Tyson are very remarkable in their ability to feed countless millions of people, and they built out production and distribution system at the largest scale you can imagine. So we're really eager to learn from them as we look to scale up our production and build a global supply chain,” Steve Myrick, the VP of operations for Memphis Meats, told FoodDive.
"Our continued investment in Memphis Meats underscores our inclusive approach to the future of meat. We need all options on the table to meet customer and consumer needs now and in the future," Elizabeth Gutschenritter, managing director of Cargill’s alternative protein team, said in a press release about the funding.
Cultured meat is created from real animal cells and grown in the laboratory. Memphis Meats, one of the better-known cellular agriculture companies, has produced a number of product demos, including a beef meatball and chicken and duck products.
New facility could be ready in less than two years
The funding will be used to build a pilot production facility capable of creating both beef and chicken products, increase team size and bring new products to market, Memphis Meat says. The company has already identified land in San Francisco’s East Bay area to build the pilot plant and it could be fully operational in 18-24 months.
Additional regional plants to serve different areas of the country could soon follow.
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