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Future Meat Technologies raises $347M, looks toward global expansion

Future Meat Technologies has been one of the leading companies in the effort to commercialize cultivated meat outside of Singapore, and the company has just closed a $347 million Series B funding round in order to do just that.

This fundraising round was co-led by ADM Ventures, the investment arm of ADM with participation from Menora Mivtachim, S2G Ventures, Tyson New Venutres, Rich Products Ventures, Manta Ray Ventures, Emerald Technology Ventures and the Sander Group.

While this money was not specifically earmarked for any projects, it is clear that global expansion is top of mind for the Israeli company. Already, the cultivated meat corporation has an operational industrial plant in Rehovot, Israel, where it can produce the equivalent of 5,000 hamburgers daily. Now, the company says it is scouting several locations in the United States for a future large-scale production facility.

“Our singular technology reduced production costs faster than anyone thought possible, paving the way for a massive expansion of operations. Our team will break ground on the first-of-its-kind, large-scale production facility in the United States in 2022,” said Professor Yaakov Nahmias, founder and president of Future Meat in a statement.

As part of its aim to expand and make its cultivated meat widely accessible, Future Meat Technologies has been working on whittling down the price point for its cultivated meat. The company said it is now able to manufacture cultivated chicken breast for just $7.70 per pound, or $1.70 per 110-gram chicken breast, down from under $18 per pound just six months ago.

Reducing the price point of cultivated meat will be essential to developing the industry and ensuring that consumers are capable of actually adopting this technology.

Of course, when it comes to cultivated meat, the consumer is not the only interested party. Outside of Singapore, cell-based meats are not commercially available largely due to a lack of regulatory approval. Future Meat has been working closely with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for months in order to receive approvals that would permit the company to sell its products to the general public.

Even with governmental approval and an attractive price point, cultivated meat has an uphill path to convince consumers to widely adopt these products. A 2021 study by North Mountain Consulting Group and commissioned by Aleph Farms found that only 40% of adults in the U.S. and the UK would try cultivated meat. One-fifth of consumers were not open to eating this product at all.