Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

Lab-grown meat start-up raises $14 million to build production plant

Lab-grown meat start-up raises $14 million to build production plant

Future Meat Technologies is trying to do for lab-grown meat what Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have done for plant-based meat.

Future Meat Technologies, a start-up that makes lab-grown meat, raised $14 million in its Series A funding round.

Cultured meat is made by using stem cells from the fat or muscle of an animal.

By 2021, Future Meat is planning on selling hybrid products that use lab-grown fat and plant protein.

As meatless burgers have landed at Burger King and Carl’s Jr., dozens of start-ups are racing to be the first to sell beef grown in a lab.

Now, one of those start-ups has raised $14 million to produce its cultured meat products.

Future Meat Technologies, which was founded in 2018 and based in Israel, is trying to do for lab-grown meat what Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have done for plant-based meat.

Future Meat is far from the only company that has set out to create affordable cell-cultured meat. Several dozen start-ups, mostly in the U.S. and Europe, have sprung up in the last couple of years to develop the product.

But only one, Memphis Meats, has raised more money than Future Meat in a Series A funding round — $17 million in 2017 — thanks to investments from Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Cargill.

S2G Ventures, a Chicago-based venture capital fund that invests in food and agriculture, and Emerald Technology Ventures, a Swiss-based firm, led the $14 million round, Future Meat announced Thursday.

“What we think separates Future Meat is that they have an actual plan to get to commercially viable price points that doesn’t require massive capital expenditures or future breakthroughs,” S2G managing director Matt Walker said in an interview.

Future Meat plans to use the proceeds to expand research and development efforts and build a cultured meat manufacturing facility to begin production next year.

Creating cultured meat

Cultured meat is made by putting stem cells from the fat or muscle of an animal into a culture medium that feeds the cells, allowing them to grow. The media is then put into a bioreactor to support the cells’ growth.

By recycling some parts of the media and using lower-cost nutrients, Future Meat is working to reduce the high costs of making lab-grown meat.

“That’s 99% of the cost,” Future Meat CEO Rom Kshuk said.

Future Meat has managed to reduce production costs to $150 per pound of chicken and $200 per pound for beef.

The production plant will be able to produce half a ton of fat per month, according to Kshuk. The start-up plans to release hybrid products that blend plant proteins with lab-grown fat for aroma and flavor in 2021, once it can further reduce prices to compete with other meat alternatives.

The next step in getting its products to market will require switching from pharmaceutical-grade bioreactors to food-grade versions, Kshuk said. By 2022, Future Meat plans to launch a second line of entirely lab-grown meat that will cost less than $10 per pound.

In February 2018, Future Meat’s co-founder and chief scientist Yaakov Nahmias said the company had brought the production price down to $800 per kilogram and would reach $5 to $10 per kilogram by 2020.

Market potential


Like Impossible Foods, Future Meat plans to focus primarily on beef and to start selling its products first to restaurants, then to retailers.

“I’m just a student of what Impossible and Beyond are doing,” Kshuk said.

Kshuk thinks cultured meat would give consumers more choice when it comes to buying protein at the supermarket: Consumers would eat traditional meat one day, a plant-based burger the next and lab-grown meat the following day.

Investors like S2G are betting that cultured meat start-ups like Future Meat will benefit from the same consumer trends as Beyond Meat, which was backed by S2G, and Impossible Foods.

“I think we’ve agreed that there is that portion of the consumer base that would rather not eat animals if they can avoid it,” Walker said.

Tyson Ventures, the venture capital arm of Tyson Foods, has participated in Future Meat’s seed and Series A funding rounds.

“We value their belief in Future Meat,” Kshuk said. “We value the work that we’re doing together. Obviously, they’re bringing validation to a young company.”

Tyson, the largest U.S. meat producer, has been investing in start-ups focused on plant-based and cultured meat. It exited Beyond ahead of its blockbuster public market debut and holds a stake in Memphis Meats, a U.S.-based competitor to Future Meat.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
×