February 26, 2024

Photo credit: Simple Planet

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Biotech startup Simple Planet has closed on an oversubscribed $6 million pre-Series A round to fund its development of functional future food ingredients through its cell culture platform. 

Global protein consumption is expected to climb at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.7 percent, reaching 943 million tons by 2054, according to Lux Research. On a global scale, greenhouse gas emissions generated by the animal agriculture industry in place to meet this demand account for 14.5 percent of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions – more than the worldwide transportation sector.

Meanwhile, as the global population increases and so too does demand for conventional meat, our traditional animal agriculture systems cannot keep pace. Already, the land used by the livestock industry accounts for 83 percent of the world’s total agricultural land, and one-third of global grain production is processed as feed grain. 

As these societal, environmental, and consumption trends align, cell-cultured meat technology is on a growth trajectory as a solution able to overcome resource constraints, and the number of players developing clean meat and the amounts of capital being invested in these technologies is growing.

With a cell line development platform specializing in mass production, Simple Planet has established 13 different cell lines to-date. Furthermore, it has developed a low-cost, probiotics-based, serum-free, edible culture medium to replace conventional fetal bovine serum, which currently accounts for more than 80 percent of cell-based food production costs.

Usually, producers of lab-grown or cell-based meats have based their production methods on using the cell tissues from an animal – not requiring the slaughter of that animal. However, those same companies often feed these cells with fetal bovine serum, sourced from slaughtered animals, therefore negating any possible claim to being “slaughter-free”. These current methods can also take months, creating a real challenge to scaling the technology.

Through its platform, the company is able to isolate cells from livestock tissues and cultivate them in large quantities to produce cell-based ingredients such as alternative protein and unsaturated fats in a powder or paste form instead of the widely developed hybrid cultivated meat form. 

These high-protein powders and customizable unsaturated fatty acids can be used as food ingredients with unlimited applications, while enhancing absorption and improving the flavor and nutritional profile of conventional food products – making them ideally suited to target seniors and infants. 

Simple Planet’s serum-free medium, its unique production capabilities, and its plans for a North American expansion are all positioning the company to accelerate its drive toward the commercialization of cell-based foods. 

In addition to Simple Planet signing an investment agreement with Pulmuone, a Korean plant-based food manufacturing company to accelerate commercialization, the company’s technology and innovative work have already gained global recognition. 

Simple Planet was ranked on 2022 Food-tech 500 presented by Food Forwarding in the UK, which selects groundbreaking startups in the agrifood and food tech industries, and was the only Asia-based finalist selected in MassChallenge Switzerland 2023, an early stage accelerator.

Il Doo Jeong, CEO of Simple Planet, commented, “Simple Planet’s cell-based food ingredients will be supplied diversely as target materials in the global cultivated meat market, and we are preparing for commercialization and global market entry starting with the establishment of our North American branches…”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief 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 Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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