Image Credit: Mosa Meat
Mosa Meat, the Dutch trailblazer in cultivated meat, has secured a significant €40M ($42.4M) in fresh funding, signaling a pivotal moment in the company's evolution as it gears up for its next growth phase. This funding injection precedes an eagerly anticipated public tasting of its burger, set to debut in Singapore.
Having pioneered the concept of cultivated meat, Mosa Meat now embarks on the exciting journey of public tastings and market entry, fueled by this latest €40M ($42.4M) financing round. This brings the company's total funding to over $135M, building upon its successful Series B and Series A rounds.
The oversubscribed funding round saw prominent investors like Lowercarbon Capital and M Ventures taking the lead alongside new government-backed players such as Invest-NL, LIOF, and the Limburg Energy Fund, demonstrating robust support for Mosa Meat's mission.
Industry players like poultry producer PHW Group, XO Ventures, and Doux Investments, among others, are joining the investor roster, underlining the broad interest and confidence in Mosa Meat's vision and potential.
This financing round marks a significant milestone for Mosa Meat, representing the largest investment in a cultivated meat company since November 2022. It reflects the challenges and opportunities within the cultivated meat sector amidst a shifting funding landscape highlighted by a substantial decline in VC investments. However, despite these challenges, Mosa Meat stands poised to lead the way towards a sustainable and innovative future for alternative protein production.
"The overall macroeconomic landscape has been rough in the last two years, which has culled the herd of companies and forced us to be even more strategic and focused on achieving our mission," said Mosa Meat CEO Maarten Bosch. "As such, we are humbled and honoured to welcome both public parties and conventional meat producers to join this critical journey."
The company will use the funds to further scale up its production processes following the May 2023 opening of what it claims is currently the world's largest cultivated meat facility in Maastricht, Netherlands. This "cultivated meat campus" is its fourth plant, expanding its footprint to 7,340 sq m (79,007 sq ft), and has a 1,000-litre bioreactor scale that can produce "tens of thousands of cultivated hamburgers."
The capital will also help Mosa Meat accelerate its market entry. The startup is actively pursuing regulatory approval in "North America, Asia, Europe, the UK, and more," according to Bosch, who told Green Queen in September: "We're engaging policymakers at the national and international levels to encourage the enabling conditions necessary to foster thriving cellular agriculture ecosystems."
Mosa Meat catapulted onto the world stage in 2013 with the unveiling of its cultivated beef at a landmark press conference in London. Initially priced at a staggering $330,000 for two proof-of-concept burger patties, the company has since embarked on a remarkable journey to drive down costs.
In a series of groundbreaking achievements, Mosa Meat achieved an 80-fold reduction in the price of its growth medium in 2020, followed by a 66-fold decrease in fat medium costs the following year. Bolstering these efforts, the company secured a €2M grant from the EU in 2021, aiming to slash production costs by an unprecedented 100-fold.
Collaborating with investor Nutreco, Mosa Meat pioneered the development of a cell feed supply chain, transitioning to food-grade amino acids to reduce cost without compromising yield. While exact production costs remain undisclosed, it's estimated that cultivated meat must reach $2.92 per lb to attain price parity with conventional meat.
Due to its significant environmental impact, Mosa Meat prioritizes beef and operates its facilities on 100% renewable energy. A peer-reviewed life-cycle assessment in 2021 revealed that cultivated beef can dramatically reduce climate impact, air pollution, land use, and water consumption compared to conventional meat.
Elevating its commitment to sustainability, Mosa Meat obtained B Corp certification in September, solidifying its status as an industry trailblazer. In a further stride towards transparency and innovation, the company replaced fetal bovine serum with a serum-free growth medium in 2022, sharing the methodology as open-source to drive progress across the cultivated meat sector.
Cultivated meat has been under attack in the media and the political sphere recently, with governments in the US and the EU attempting to ban or restrict these foods. Italy has gone through with it, and Florida is close to doing so. "In an environment that is increasingly polarised, we choose to connect and collaborate, working towards a future where cultivated beef is a real choice for consumers and a complementary solution in the toolbox to combat the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity," said Bosch.
The company is awaiting approval from the Dutch government to host public tastings for its cultivated beef, following the establishment of a Code of Practice in July with support from Mosa Meat, cultivated pork producer Meatable, and sector representative HollandBIO. "Rethinking how we produce great food for a growing planet without destroying it is quite a daunting task and will take many people and organisations to pull in the same direction," added Bosch.
Speaking on the Green Queen in Conversation: Cultivated Meat Pioneers podcast in August, Mosa Meat founder and CSO Dr. Mark Post outlined the importance of having a high-quality product that outcompetes current meat analogs. "I cannot help thinking that part of it is that people just want to have meat, that the meat alternative has to be meat and nothing else," he said. "So, the foremost goal of the company is to create a high-quality alternative that is sufficiently credible for consumers to change their behaviour away from traditional meat."