Startup Receives $1.2m Fund Seed, Says Cultivated Meat Production can become 90% Cheaper
As we seek better alternatives to traditional meat, the food industry is experiencing significant change. But when it comes to cell based meat, the focus is not just growing meat from plant or animal cells. It reaches down to building a sustainable market and beating costs.
An Estonian materials startup has recently benefited from a $1.2m fund seed to begin producing raw materials for lab based meat. To say the least, this is a direct pointer to the high success potential of cultivated meat production.
Marl-Ann Meigo Fonseca and Mart-Erik Martens, cofounders of Galatex, were pumped to highlight how cost-effective lab based meat production can become. According to Martens, his innovation can reduce cultivated meat production costs by up to 90%. While Galatex is not a meat-growing company, it focuses on producing scaffolds from nanofibrous plant materials like protein. Scaffolds are very important to lab-cultured meat companies who use the material as structural support for the plant-based meat they produce.
Martens also revealed what spurred his company to set up its unique, cost-effective procedure for producing nanofibres. According to him, there was a scarcity of nanofibres, and lab culturing companies found it hard to obtain scaffolds for their productions. The scarcity and absence of a ready market had made scaffolds painfully expensive.
Before now, cell based companies purchased one kg of scaffolding material at about €100K. Martens offered hope as he expressed that his company can now produce nanofibrous scaffolds that could sell for less than €1K per kg in coming years. Not only that, Galatex is working on another technology that can help to produce scaffolds three times faster than what is currently obtainable.
What the Future Holds for the Cultivated Meat Space
Although only Singapore has successfully begun commercial sales of cultivated meat, lab based meat companies all over the world are getting the attention of investors. According to some of them, 2022 will be the spotlight year for lab cultured meat production. Digital Food Lab projects that cultivated meat will account for 35% of global meat production in 2040. By 2026, the market size may pump to $248 million, compared to just $103 million in 2020.
In another investment streak, the world's biggest meat-producing company, JBS, has just purchased a cellular agriculture firm. The firm would work to produce 1000 tons more of cultivated meat every year. And as it stands, it would become the largest lab based meat production plant.
In Israel, where cell based meat has received an early embrace, robotic machines are already up and running to produce patty burgers from plant based ingredients. This recent innovation from Savor Eat, an Israeli food-tech startup, means good for the direct users of lab-cultured meat. Cell based meat can now transform directly from plant ingredients into a savory part of burgers. What is more? Vegans can now comfortably eat what looks and smells like a beef burger but is definitely not a beef burger!
