Big Idea Ventures is the world’s most active investor in FoodTech investing in the best food technology and agritech companies globally. The company is focused on alternative protein with its New Protein Fund and commercialization of university intellectual property with its Generation Food Rural Partners fund. BIV is backed by a strong network of strategic partners including AAK, Avril, Bühler, Givaudan, Temasek Holdings, and Tyson Ventures, and is partnering with governments around the world working on food security and new food ecosystems. The firm has offices in New York, Paris and Singapore and has invested in more than 100 companies across 22 countries. For more information, visit bigideaventures.com

Big Idea Ventures

Social Starts is a venture capital firm with a data-driven approach to investing in moment-of-inception and Series A financing rounds. The firm prefers to invest in early-stage companies operating in the technology, health tech, internet, and mobile tech sectors.

Social Starts

Beyond Impact Advisors is created to facilitate investment in products and services that are either inherently vegan in nature or are cruelty-free and remove mankind’s reliance on the raising of animals for slaughter. Beyond Impact’s core investment thesis centers on sustainability as a pillar of risk management and economic valuation. Due to the heavy environmental impact, the use of animals is inherently unsustainable and alternatives need to be found and funded. Coinciding with this we are seeing an accelerating societal shift in favour of vegan, cruelty-free and plant-based alternatives, based on the environmental imperative, health concerns and compassion for animals. As such, Beyond Impact targets significantly impactful companies which have positioned their products and services to meet this growing demand, favouring those with clear technological advantages and whose products outstrip the qualities of the animal-derived material they replace.

Beyond Impact

Point Nine Capital is a Berlin-based venture capital firm focused exclusively on early-stage Internet investments in areas like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), online marketplaces, and mobile. The fund and its managers, Pawel Chudzinski and Christoph Janz have backed a number of highly successful Internet companies such as Delivery Hero, Clio, Shiftplanning, Vend, Typeform, and Zendesk from their earliest stages.

Point Nine

Air Street Capital invests in AI-first companies.

Air Street Capital

Partech is a global tech investment firm headquartered in Paris, with offices in Berlin, Dakar, Dubai, Nairobi, and San Francisco. We are a team made up of independent thinkers. We are unconstrained by hype, trend or fixed ways of working. We believe in the power of alliance in action, working together and side-by-side with the founders we back, in the shared pursuit of success. We bring together capital, operational experience and strategic support for the entrepreneurs we back from seed through to growth stage. Born in San Francisco 40 years ago, today we manage €2.5bn AUM and our current portfolio of 220 companies in 40 countries, across 4 continents.

Partech

Bpifrance provides financial solutions for companies that are booting up the listing on the stock exchange and credit equity. It includes OSEO, CDC Entreprises, FSI, and FSI Regions to offer in your area of financial solutions at every stage of the life of your business.

Bpifrance

Heartcore Capital is an early stage venture capital fund founded in 2007 in Denmark, with offices in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Berlin and Paris.   They are a multi-product fund with 5 early-stage funds, 2 growth-opportunity funds and 1 web3 fund under management - with a cumulative committed capital of approximately €770M. They are European by origin but global in outlook, with a team spans nine nationalities and speaks ten languages. So far they have invested in over 100 exceptional founding teams from 13 countries. Heartcore has backed some of Europe’s biggest category-defining companies, such as Tink, Neo4j, Boozt, Seriously and TravelPerk.

Heartcore Capital

Eutopia VC is an early stage venture capital fund.A Paris and New York based early stage venture capital fund. They  invest in consumer startups who are rethinking the way They eat, sleep, dress, exercise and feel.They empower early-stage startups to grow through investment, in-house expertise and a network of global advisors.

Eutopia VC

Ataraxia, an early stage fund manager focused on helping people live longer and live better.

Ataraxia

Founded in 1997, Earlybird invests in all development and growth phases of technology companies. Among the most experienced venture investors in Europe, Earlybird offers its portfolio companies not only financial resources but also strategic support plus access to an international network and capital markets. With EUR 2 billion under management, eight IPOs and 30 trade sales, Earlybird is one of the most established and active venture capital firms in Europe.

Earlybird Venture Capital

Omnes VC is the Venture Capital arm of Omnes Capital, a leading private equity firm dedicated to energy transition and innovation with €4.8 billion in assets under management and a 20 year + experience in: venture capital, buyout & growth capital, private debt, renewable energy, co-investment, secondary funds of funds. Omnes Capital is fully independent. With 65 business sales including 14 IPOs carried out in 16 years, Omnes VC is one of the key players in France in financing innovative SMEs with expertise in both Technology and Healthcare sectors. Omnes VC has supported 120 companies and has invested more than €500M in businesses such as Scality, Novaled, BioVex, arGEN-X, Pixium, Blablacar.

Omnes Capital

Mission is to explore for and develop gold, silver, and copper mineral deposits in the province of British Columbia, Canada.

Discovery Ventures

Keen Venture Partners is a radically human venture capital firm that invests in fast-growing European scale-ups at the Series A and Series B stages

Keen Venture Partners

Thia Ventures is an Early-stage investor in one of the most dynamic and essential fields of current human endeavor.

Thia Ventures

GOURMEY

GOURMEY is France's pioneering cultivated meat company. We create sustainable cultivated meat delights for an uncompromising and conscious generation.

Gourmey is a French startup developing foie gras using cell culture technology. The startup uses cells from a duck egg grown in a cultivator with feed media matching the nutrients of a duck's natural diet to develop its cultivated foie gras. Once the cells are multiplied, the company adjusts the nutrients in the media, increasing the plant-based fats to replicate the effects of forced feeding at the cellular level.

Making meat sustainable over the long term

Cell-cultured Meat

Gourmey

Gourmey grabs $48 million to keep working on lab-grown foie gras

Gourmey is a French startup developing foie gras using cell culture technology. The startup uses cells from a duck egg grown in a cultivator with feed media matching the nutrients of a duck's natural diet to develop its cultivated foie gras. Once the cells are multiplied, the company adjusts the nutrients in the media, increasing the plant-based fats to replicate the effects of forced feeding at the cellular level.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/32014">July 2024</a>, the company applied for regulatory approval to sell cultivated meat in the EU. Gourmey has also submitted applications in Singapore, Switzerland, the UK, and the US.Funding and financialsIn <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13534">October 2022</a>, the company raised EUR 48 million (~USD 48 million) in a Series A funding round led by Earlybird Venture Capital with the participation of Keen Venture Partners, Omnes Capital, Discovery, and others. The funding was intended for advancing from R&amp;D toward commercialization.

Mosa Meat is a Dutch cell-cultured meat startup founded by Dr. Mark Post of Maastricht University, and was the first-ever company to produce a lab-grown meat burger. The startup produces meat by growing myosatellite cells (muscle stem cells) extracted from an animal in a bioreactor fed with a nutrient-dense medium.The company replaced the fetal bovine serum (FBS) from its growth medium in July 2020, which led to an 88x cost reduction in its medium. As of March 2024, Mosa Meat operated the Center for Advanced Meat Production, Upscaling, and Sustainability (CAMPUS), a facility spanning over 79,000 sq ft that was designed to be expandable as demand grows.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21645">September 2023</a>, Mosa Meat became the first cultivated meat company to attain B Corp certification. The company also announced plans to apply for regulatory approval in countries worldwide. In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21645">September 2023</a>, Mosa Meat became the first cultivated meat company to attain B Corp certification. The company also announced plans to apply for regulatory approval in countries worldwide. In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/31970">July 2024</a>, it conducted the first official tasting of its cultivated beef product, the Mosa Burger, in the Netherlands. This event gathered Dutch cattle farmers, food product developers, and industry representatives to collect expert feedback.Key customers and partnershipsIn <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14175">November 2022</a>, Mosa Meat entered into an agreement with Singapore-based contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Esco Aster to commercialize its cultivated beef in Singapore. Further, in <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16845">March 2023</a>, the company partnered withNutreco to develop a cell feed supply chain that can expedite production and scalability while reducing cost.Funding and financialsIn its latest funding round in <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/28536">April 2024</a>, the company raised EUR 40 million (~USD 42.5 million) in an oversubscribed funding round co-led by Lowercarbon Capital and M Ventures, with participation from PHW Group, Invest-NL, LIOF, and LEF. The funds were earmarked for scaling production procedures, reducing production costs, and gearing up for commercialization.

Mosa Meat

SuperMeat is a cellular agriculture startup developing cultured chicken meat. The company uses chicken cells and claims to grow them in a culture medium free from antibiotics and contaminants to develop its products. SuperMeat also operates a test kitchen known as The Chicken. It is claimed to be the world’s first farm-to-fork facility where diners can observe the production of cultivated chicken.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21733">September 2023</a>, The Orthodox Union (OU) certified SuperMeat’s cultivated chicken as “kosher.” Further, the OU and SuperMeat will collaborate on establishing guidelines for the industry.In&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/35765">November 2024</a>, the company announced it had achieved cost parity for its cultivated chicken and could produce it at at USD 11.79 per pound at scale, matching the price of premium US pasture-raised chicken.Key customers and partnershipsIn <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9319">March 2022</a>, SuperMeat signed an MoU with PHW to supply cultivated meat products including chicken, turkey, and duck to the European market. The company also <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8997">partnered</a> with Ajinomoto to set up a joint venture to accelerate the commercialization of cultivated meat while focusing on developing a cost-competitive cell growth media.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11867">July 2022</a>, the company signed an MoU with Switzerland’s largest retail supermarket chain and leading meat manufacturer, Migros to expedite production and distribution of cultured meat at a commercial scale with a focus on European markets.&nbsp;

SuperMeat

Uncommon (formerly HigherSteaks) is a UK-based cell-cultured meat startup that uses cellular agriculture to grow pork from animal cells. The company leverages cellular agriculture and in-house developed RNA technologies to cultivate meat and claims its technology eliminates the need for genetic engineering and growth media.In July 2020, the company unveiled the world's first lab-grown pork belly prototype and the second cell-based bacon (behind Mission Barns cell-based bacon unveiled in early 2020). The pork belly and the bacon were produced from a combination of cell-cultured muscle and plant-based proteins and fat. Uncommon plans to commercialize its cell-cultured meat by 2022-2025, pending regulatory approval.Funding and financialsIn <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19267">June 2023</a>, the company raised USD 30 million in Series A funding co-led by Balderton Capital and Lower Carbon Capital, with participation from Redalpine, East Alpha, and others. The funds were earmarked for the development of its innovative approach, expanding production, increasing the team, and initiating regulatory approvals.

Uncommon

Multus, a spin-off of SOSV’s IndieBio program, is a biotechnology company that specializes in the development of growth media solutions for cellular agriculture applications. Its portfolio includes serum-free FBS alternatives (Proliferum M and Proliferum LSR) and solutions that support cell adhesion (rh-Vitronectin) during the cultivation process.Multus leverages MediOp, a growth media formulation design platform, to develop its solutions. According to the company, this technology allows optimizing solutions using automated data analysis and insights. Multus also uses this platform to provide contract manufacturing services for custom formulation design and food-safe manufacturing compliant with ISO22000 to customers in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. In December 2024, the company launched&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/37120">Proliferum B</a>, an animal component-free alternative to fetal bovine serum (FBS) for cultivated meat production.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25572">January 2024</a>, the company unveiled what it claims to be the first large-scale production plant-making serum-free growth media in the cultivated meat industry.Key customers and partnershipsIn <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/24911">December 2023</a>, the company partnered with New Wave Biotech, a bioprocess optimization software company, under a project funded through an Innovate UK Engineering Biology grant. Through this partnership, Multus planned to use New Wave Biotech’s AI software to optimize its process of developing precision-fermented ingredients for cell cultivation.&nbsp;

Multus

Based in Israel, Believer Meats (Future Meat Technologies prior to November 2022) develops hardware and cell lines for the manufacturing of cell-cultured meat, to commercialize its manufacturing hardware and techniques.Believer Meats uses fibroblast cells that can be triggered with small molecules to develop either fat or muscle cells. Fat and muscle cells are cultured in a unique bioreactor that removes the waste material from the media, allowing the company to recycle parts of the media to reduce feed media input by as much as 50%. The startup replaced FBS with molecules derived from Chinese hamster ovaries (CHO) to reduce production costs and plans to achieve price parity with animal counterparts.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12623">August 2022</a>, the company announced it has developed what it claims to be the world’s first cultivated lamb, using cell lines isolated from Awassi sheep.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15195">December 2022</a>, the company announced it has begun development of a 200,000 sq foot production facility in Wilson, North Carolina with an annual capacity of ~22 million lbs, which is claimed to be the largest cultivation facility in the world. Believer Meats plans to produce cultured chicken, pork, beef, and lamb for US, European, and Asian markets.Key customers and partnershipsIn March 2022, the company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9320">partnered</a> with Charoen Pokphand Foods to develop cultivated meat products for Asia.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17710">April 2023</a>, Believer Meats signed an MoU with Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) to collaborate on the development and commercialization of cultivated meat products. Further, ADM will offer its ingredient pantry and nutrition knowledge to enhance Believer's cell-cultivated meat process.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/30520">June 2024,</a> Believer Meats partnered with Abu Dhabi’s AgriFood Growth &amp; Water Abundance (AGWA), to advance cultivated meat production in the MENA region.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Believer Meats

Producers of cell-cultured seafood using cells extracted from fish. Startups have succeeded in developing prototypes of yellowtail and salmon

Producers of cell-cultured pork using cells extracted from animals. Startups have succeeded in developing prototypes of bacon and pork belly using cultured muscle and plant-based proteins and fat

Producers of cell-cultured beef using cells extracted from animals. Some producers in the industry are developing premium beef ranges such as Wagyu. Startups have only succeeded in developing prototypes in the minced form, with a few creating prototypes of (pieces of) steak using 3D bioprinters

Producers of cell-cultured chicken and duck using cells extracted from animals. Some producers in the industry are developing rare delicacies such as foie gras. Startups have only succeeded in developing products in the nugget form

Producers of growth media for cell-cultured meat production and ingredients for meat and meat analog (cell-cultured, plant-based) producers, which can include cell culture meat paste, culture fat, etc. Producers of growth media mainly focus on developing alternative growth media to FBS using plant-based or other sources

Developers of bioreactors and other technologies used in cell-cultured meat production. Industrial scaling and efficiency gains are key areas of interest for startups in the industry

Provide sustainable solutions for animal slaughter through the use of biotechnology

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

<div>
 Gourmey, a French startup, is the first company to seek regulatory approval to sell cultivated meat in the EU with its cultivated foie gras product. It has also submitted applications in Singapore, Switzerland, the UK, and the US.
 The approval process will be conducted under the Novel Foods Regulation, a comprehensive global food safety framework. The European Commission is tasked with the assessment of the product's safety, nutritional value as well as its potential social, economic, and environmental impacts. Additionally, the European Food Safety Authority and member states will provide input for this process.
 Upon approval, Gourmey's cultivated foie gras will be available for sale across all 27 EU countries. The company argues that this innovation can coexist with culinary traditions, potentially reducing environmental damage and addressing animal welfare issues, boosting investment, and creating future-proof jobs.
 
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 Despite getting a headstart over Europe, recent <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/insights/31261"> regulatory measures </a> in the US have halted its progress in the cultivated meat industry. In contrast, there has been an uptick in activity in the UK and EU countries, including cultivated meat tastings ( <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/28578"> Meatable </a> , <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/31970"> Mosa Meat </a> ) and <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/29598"> submissions for approvals </a> . While the EU regulatory process is more complex and time-consuming than the US, the challenges in the US seem to have made European nations more attractive to companies in the cultivated meat sector.

Gourmey

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