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Why Agronomics led cultivated meat company Meatable’s Series B round
August 8, 2023
by Laura Turner — Principal at Agronomics
I have been covering the field of biomanufacturing for over four years now at VC firm Agronomics (joining the co-founders at inception as the first employee), identifying synbio tools that can be applied to make agricultural production more efficient. I have invested in companies harnessing genetic engineering for the production of meat and tropical crops (Tropic), as well as ventures utilizing the application of recombinant engineering to produce proteins, including high-value lactoferrin, amongst others.
We began looking at this sector based on the foundation that there is a global demand for abundant nutritious protein with the growing population and increased affluence of the BRICS population in particular. Global protein markets are enormous, and the ability to leverage synthetic biology to improve food security has only recently become possible with the advancements in stem cell biology and genetic engineering tools. This is the dawn of non-clinical biotech.
Whilst this emerging field remains in its infancy, companies focusing on producing food items are entering the commercialization phase following the progression of novel food regulation. Especially in major jurisdictions such as the US. This leads me to discuss the use of stem cell technology to manufacture cultivated meat and specifically our portfolio company Meatable — founded by ex-Mckinsey CEO Krijn de Nood and cultivated meat expert Daan Luining (who has probably been in the field longer than anyone), and Dr. Mark Kotter at Bit Bio.
Meatable, whose Series B round we have just led, has a proprietary patented platform — opti-ox™ technology — to allow for the efficient differentiation of pluripotent stem cells into the target cell types of adipocytes and myotubes (fat and muscle). This allows Meatable to capitalize on the inherent rapid growth of pluripotent stem cells for proliferation, achieving cell doubling times faster than 24 hours, and complete differentiation in eight days.
The opti-ox™ technology originated from Cambridge-based cellular reprogramming company Bit Bio, which as its own entity has raised over $200 million from the likes of Tencent, ARCH Ventures, Foresite Capital, and Charles River Laboratories to provide human cells for research, drug discovery and cell therapies. Meatable has now raised over $95 million with Invest-NL, BlueYard Capital, DSM Venturing, Milky Way, and Bridford participating alongside Agronomics.
To further increase productivity, continuous or perfusion systems are favored allowing for continual harvesting of biomass and media rejuvenation. Meatable is currently opting for a perfusion system, every day harvesting 50% of the cells. They have one of the fastest cultivation and mass gain systems I have seen, which is supported by data (albeit at 50L scale) and not by hypothetical scenarios which some skeptics of the industry point to as being too optimistic.
I believe there are only a handful of technological approaches that will enable cultivated meat to compete on a unit economic basis with conventional meat. Of course, not all meat is priced equally, and ventures focusing on chicken will have a much harder time achieving price parity than bluefin tuna for instance. However, blended approaches are allowing the cost to come down.
There is a need in the industry for continual optimization of the bioprocess. Companies such as Ark Biotech are developing novel bioreactors to unlock true scalability with continuous fermentation, noting historic mammalian cell culture has capped at 20kL for therapeutics. To allow for better data capture and real-time optimization, the incorporation of AI/ML will be critical. For microbial fermentation, companies such as POW.Bio is incorporating genetic tools to limit contamination. Their platform could readily be trialed to be adapted for mammalian cell culture in the future. I am excited by the wave of new start-ups that are appearing to further unlock the potential of fermentation.
This is a frontier in food production, and while Meatable does not yet have a product available on the market, they are seeking a commercial launch of their pork products next year in Singapore. Meatable is leveraging the capabilities of ESCO Aster, as the sole licensed contract manufacturer for cultivated meat in the region. I went to visit ESCO Aster earlier this year and was impressed by the services they offer to facilitate production there. The subsequent focus for Meatable will be on entering the US market and scaling production (and delivering on those unit economic milestones).
The days of using extensive (and expensive) equity to finance capex are very much over (and should have never been used in the first place), reducing capital expenditure is critical and from an investor perspective necessary to achieve good returns. With the shift in venture markets, start-ups now need to be nimble and leverage existing infrastructure, thinking creatively about retrofitting or co-ownership of facilities to reduce the balance sheet burden. There are plenty of enabling players materializing to support the build-out of the sector, but the ventures with the best business models will be the ones that succeed.
Congrats to Meatable on the successful raise!
Please write to me at laura@agronomics.im if you have any comments or for inaccuracies.