Israeli start-up Future Meat Technologies has secured $14 million in a seed funding round as it intends to build the "world’s first" cultured meat pilot production facility.

The round was led by S2G Ventures, one of the forces behind Beyond Meat’s IPO, and Emerald Technology Ventures, a Swiss-based venture capital firm.

Other investors included Henry Soesanto, the CEO of Monde Nissin, a producer of meat alternatives, Manta Ray Ventures, and Bits X Bitesm, a Chinese food and agriculture tech VC.

Founded in 2018, Future Meat Technologies is focused on developing a distributive platform for the cost-efficient, GMO-free production of meat directly from animal cells, without the need to raise or harvest animals.

The biotechnology company will use its funding to develop its research and open its new cultured meat pilot production facility south of Tel Aviv, which is estimated to begin operations in 2020.

“With this investment, we’re thrilled to bring cultured meat from the lab to the factory floor and begin working with our industrial partners to bring our product to market,” said Rom Kshuk, CEO of Future Meat Technologies.

He added: “We’re not only developing a global network of investors and advisors with expertise across the meat and ingredient supply chains, but also providing the company with sufficient runway to achieve commercially viable production costs within the next two years.”

Future Meat Technologies aims to introduce hybrid products that combines plant proteins for texture and cultured fats, which creates the distinct aroma and flavour of meat. It plans to release these products from its pilot production facility by 2021 and launch a second line of 100% cultured meat products by 2022.

Founder and chief scientist at Future Meat Technologies, Prof. Yaakov Nahmias, said: “The worldwide demand for protein is growing exponentially, and the only way to meet this demand is by fundamentally reinventing animal agriculture.

“Future Meat Technologies created a cost-effective solution for cultured meat manufacturing that is scalable and sustainable by design.”

According to Future Meat Technologies, its manufacturing model results in 99% less land use and 80% less greenhouse gas emissions than traditional meat.

Matthew Walker, managing director of S2G Ventures said: “The Future Meat team has developed a technology platform and roadmap that offers the cleanest and most efficient means of cell-based meat production, both in terms of capital expenditure and cost per pound, that we’ve seen to date.”

This Series A funding marks the seconds largest investment round in the cultured meat sector.

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