April 9, 2021

photo credit: Mission Barns

By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media

Plant-based meats have taken off. But as alternative food innovators strive to create products that match their animal-based counterparts in taste and texture, one key factor is missing – fat. 

Solving the missing fat issue has been a challenge across the industry, with multiple startups aiming to produce the cultivated fat that will bring plant-based and cultivated meats on par with animal-based products.

Silicon Valley-based cellular ag company Mission Barns is a leader in the field that has announced its closing on a $24 million Series A to scale up its cultivated fat technology and to build a pilot manufacturing plant in the Bay Area. 

Founded in 2018, Mission Barnes makes cultivated animal fat without the animals. Beginning with pork, poultry, or beef cells, the team feeds them a plant-based feedstock inside a cultivator, which through a novel process over time, creates real, pure, animal fat with the same mouthfeel and flavor of meat without livestock agriculture or the slaughtering of live animals.

Accomplishing this is the startup’s team of senior biotechnology experts from Genentech & Sigma-Aldrich; culinary leaders from Michelin-starred The French Laundry & Thomas Keller Restaurant Group; and additional veterans from other cellular agriculture companies including JUST & Memphis Meats – a team that the rapidly growing company states it is looking to expand.

Getting Fat Overnight

The deepening of the connection between consumers and their food supply chains, along with a rising popularity of veganism, concerns over animal rights, and awareness around the hormones, antibiotic usage, and lack of sustainability inherent in the global livestock industry have pushed many people in Western markets to look toward alternative ways to get protein into their diet.

Now, consumers can do just that without feeling like they’re sacrificing in regard to taste or mouthfeel, thanks to startups like Mission Barnes, which has targeted plant-based meats as its first commercial product application.

“Time and again, we see that the addition of Mission Fat to plant proteins makes alternative meat products in any number of categories far outperform the incumbent plant-based options,” said Eitan Fischer, CEO, Mission Barnes. 

Both on its own, and through collaborations with leading meat companies and plant protein partners, the company has developed products incorporating Mission Fat including bacon, breakfast patties, burger, nuggets, dumplings, hot dogs, poultry sausages, meatballs, and others.

The capital from this Series A, which was backed by a gathering of some of the leading global food and ag investors, including Lever VC; Gullspang Re:Food; Humboldt Fund; Green Monday Ventures; Enfini Ventures; and a European meat company. Other investors in the round included Blue Ledge Capital; Prithvi Ventures; and Joyance Partners, will be used by Mission Barnes to scale up and commercialize its technology.

A number of Seed investors have also taken the opportunity through this round to increase their stakes in the company including Global Founders Capital, Point Nine Capital, Better Ventures, and Cantos Ventures.

“I’ve been sampling plant-based meats for 20 years from a huge variety of brands globally, and have never tasted anything as meat-like as products containing Mission Fat,” said Nick Cooney, managing partner, Lever VC. “This is going to be a game-changer for the alternative meat sector, because it’s going to help brands around the world have a dramatically better product almost overnight.”

– Lynda Kiernan is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.