February 22, 2021

By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media

California-based New Age Meats (NAM), the first company to release a cellular pork sausage, has extended its post-Seed funding from August 2020 by an additional $2 million, to bring total funding to-date for the startup to $7 million. 

Follow-on investments were secured from ffVC, SOSV, and Innovating Capital, along with investments from San Diego Tech Coast Angels, BeniVC, Oceanic Partners, Deep Ventures, and Climate Capital.

Likewise, Peter Rahal’s (who was with RXBAR from its launch to exit) Litani Ventures joined this round, which company CEO Brian Spears noted also included a “significant industry player in Asia” that cannot be disclosed. 

We first became familiar with New Age Meats in February 2020 with the announcement that it had raised $2.7 million through a Seed round led by New York-based venture firm ff Venture Capital. 

“As we continue to ramp up to market, we strategically brought on investors aligned with our short and long term growth,” said Spears. “This round includes a very large, significant industry player in Asia who for now must remain confidential. Additionally, Peter Rahal’s Litani Ventures has joined. His experience with RXBAR, from founding to exit, is invaluable as we navigate to become the largest meat company in the world.”

Founded by Spears, a chemical engineer, in 2018 in Berkeley, California, and a graduate of the IndieBio accelerator program, New Age Meats is employing automation and data science rooted in stem cell research and bioreactor optimization to develop technology to make meat from animal cells, without the need for slaughter.

The year it was founded, New Age Meats conducted the first ever taste test of cellular pork, letting a select group of 40 journalists and prospective investors tasted its prototype pork sausage, to positive reviews. 

At the time, the company had gotten its cost of production down to about $5 per sausage link, or $23 per pound. Still expensive, but a world away from the cost of production of the first cellular beef patty in 2013 at $330,000.

Now, as the company looks toward a Series A, the capital from this extension will support the company as it looks to expand its team with talent experienced in bringing products from ideation to market. Over the past year, the startup has added bioengineers with product development and scaling backgrounds, and a food team featuring alumni from Impossible Foods.

The Price is Right

A survey conducted by Surveygoo in 2018 found that 40 percent of U.S. respondents said they were willing to try lab-grown meat, and that same year, a study conducted by Kadence International determined that 66 percent of consumers are open to the idea of trying lab-created protein, reports Food Dive. However, cost is always an issue. 

“…the cellular meat industry has tremendous growth potential, and companies like Memphis Meats are poised to become household names, just as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have done during the past 18 months,” said Adam Bergman, managing partner, EcoTech Capital Partners, in his piece, Cellular Meat is Poised to be The Next Big Thing in Alternative Protein, published in GAI News on February 3, 2020. 

Bergman continued, “However, cellular meat companies are still in the early stages of product development with costs that need to decrease significantly. It will take time for cellular meat companies to hone their technology…”

This fact is not lost on NAM CEO Brian Spears who said, “Ultimately, we will fail if our products are too expensive and low volume to be served anywhere but luxury restaurants.”

“We’ve focused relentlessly on driving down the cost and scaling production of our product: hybrid cultivated and plant-based meat that doesn’t sacrifice on flavor,” said Spears.”We want to make the world a better place by making the better decisions easy. We are well on our way to bringing that vision to market after our upcoming Series A.”

– 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, and HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She is also a contributor to the GAI Gazette. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.