German cell-based meat start-up Innocent Meat has raised €3 million, with a €500,000 investment from anchor investor Venture Capital Fonds and €2.5 million from a new, undisclosed private investor.
Innocent Meat is striving to create a complete solution for cell-based meat production with an automated, end-to-end system. it is working on creating an automated plug-and-produce solution for cell-based meat to help meat producers transition to this innovative technology.
The technology start-up based in Rostock, Germany, says it is one of the first to make it possible for any company to produce cultured meat itself.
The fresh capital will enable Innocent Meat to develop its existing biocomponents, scale-up its pilot plant and initiate the necessary certification processes to begin its journey to regulatory approval.
Innocent Meat’s model will provide food manufacturers with access to growth media, cell lines, scaffolding and manufacturing hardware such as bioreactors and filtration systems, facilitating clients to oversee the production process, guaranteeing safety and efficiency in developing cell-based meat products.
The start-up has formulated its first serum-free proliferation medium for porcine primary muscle cells in cell-based pork, without foetal bovine serum. Innocent’s growth media incorporates growth factors that it developed with the University of Rostock through Innocent Meat’s large-scale recombinant animal protein platform FABA.BIO.
According to Innocent Meat, by using Fabaceae plants as expression platforms or “natural bioreactors,” the company can reduce costs and increase scalability.
