SCiFi Foods

SCiFi Foods, formerly known as Artemys Foods, is a San Francisco Bay Area-based food technology company focused on developing cultivated beef products. Founded in 2019 by Joshua March and Dr. Jessica Krieger, the company rebranded to SCiFi Foods in 2022. SCiFi Foods specializes in creating hybrid meat products that combine cultivated beef cells with plant-based ingredients. The company's primary offering is a burger patty consisting of 90% plant-based ingredients and 10% cultivated beef cells.

SCiFi Foods utilizes CRISPR gene-editing technology and a high-throughput cell line engineering platform to develop bovine cell lines that can grow in single-cell suspension without the need for microcarriers or scaffolding. This approach allows for more efficient and cost-effective production of cultivated meat at scale. The company claims to have achieved a 1,000-fold reduction in production costs through this breakthrough. SCiFi Foods' cultivated beef cells are grown in serum-free media without animal-derived ingredients in bioreactors.

In January 2024, SCiFi Foods completed its first 500-liter bioreactor run at its newly opened 16,000-square-foot pilot facility in San Leandro, California. This scale is expected to produce approximately 50,000 hybrid burgers annually at launch. The company aims to double this production capacity quickly and believes it can increase yields significantly over the next couple of years.

SCiFi Foods' strategy focuses on creating blended products to address taste and cost challenges in the alternative meat market. By combining cultivated beef cells with plant-based ingredients, the company aims to deliver products with improved flavor and texture compared to purely plant-based options, while maintaining a more affordable price point than 100% cultivated meat products.