Cell-Based Meat Pioneer Raises Nearly $20 Million to Bring First Products to Market

Cell-based meat company Mosa Meat recently raised nearly $20 million after another round of Series B fundraising. The new funding—which is being led by Blue Horizon Ventures and backed by investors such as Mitsubishi Corporation, Target Global, and ArcTern Ventures—brings the Dutch company’s total investment financing to $75 million, after securing $55 million in September.  

Expanding production
Mosa Meat was the first to create a slaughter-free meat burger in 2013 using a small amount of cells taken from the muscle of an animal and grown in a lab setting. The company plans to use the funding to expand its pilot production facility in Maastricht, Netherlands, including creating an industrial-scale production line and expanding its team. 

Mosa Meat is also working to improve its methods for cell culturing and develop plant-based serum to feed the cells, and it hopes its new funding and partnerships will help. Previously, the nutrient serum used to feed the cells was fetal bovine serum, which is both inhumane and costly. Having a plant-based option to feed the cells is one reason why Mosa Meat has not yet started working toward regulatory approval. The company wants to be able to have a growth medium that is completely animal-free before starting the process. 

Regulatory approval
Mosa Meat hopes to launch its slaughter-free beef products once it obtains regulatory approval in Europe. The regulatory process is expected to take approximately a year and a half, and the company is aiming to have a product on the market at the end of 2022. “We are delighted to welcome our new partners. They all bring their expertise and they share our commitment to making our food system more sustainable,” Maarten Bosch, CEO of Mosa Meat, said about its new investors. According to Mosa Meat, cell-based meat would use up to 99 percent less land and 96 percent less water than animal meat production.

Approval in Singapore
California-based food tech company Eat Just—makers of the popular JUST Egg and JUST Mayo—recently announced it has received the world’s first regulatory approval for cell-based chicken in Singapore. Over the weekend, the company sold its cell-based chicken for the first time ever at 1880, a fine-dining restaurant in Singapore.