Israeli cultured meat company Aleph Farms has announced the completion of a $105 million Series B financing round led by the Growth Fund of L Catterton, the largest global consumer-focused private equity firm, and DisruptAD, one of the largest venture platforms in the Middle East. Also participating n the round were Skyviews Life Science, and a consortium of leading global food and meat companies including Thai Union, BRF, and CJ CheilJedang. Additionally, existing investors, including VisVires New Protein, Strauss Group, Cargill, Peregrine Ventures, and CPT Capital. Millennium Food-Tech (TASE: MIFT) also participated in the round with a $3 million investment.
This is one of the largest financing rounds ever completed worldwide by a cultured meat company.
Aleph Farms was founded in 2017 as part of Strauss Group's The Kitchen food-tech incubator. Strauss notified the Tel Aviv Stock exchange that the financing round will yield it a profit of NIS 58 million in the third quarter of 2021.
Aleph Farms said that the new funds will be used scaling-up manufacturing, growing operations internationally, and expanding its product lines and technology platform ahead of an initial market launch for its product in 2022. The company said that it is working with regulatory agencies on our plans for market entry.
Aleph Farms was founded by Strauss together with Prof. Shulamit Levenberg of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology to cultivate the world's first slaughter-free ribeye steak, using 3D bio-printing technology and natural building blocks of meat - real cow cells, without genetic engineering.
In February 2021, the company reported that it had 3D printed a ribeye steak, an unprecedented global breakthrough in the cultured field. The company said that its proprietary system, similar to the vascularization that occurs naturally in tissues, enables the fusion of nutrients across the thicker tissue and grants the steak with the similar shape and structure of its native form as found in livestock before and during cooking.
Aleph Farms was represented in the financing round by Advs. Yoav Etzyon and Efrat Shpizaizen from the Amit, Pollak, Matalon & Co (APM) law firm.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 7, 2021
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2021