Since Mark Post first introduced his cultured meat burger in 2013, the industry has attracted nearly US$3 billion in private investment. In that time, over 150 incredible founders have established new companies, developing innovative food products by leveraging cell biology and advanced biomanufacturing techniques.
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Despite these milestones, the journey has not been without its challenges. In the past six months, we have observed a significant reduction in venture capital funding for many start-ups in this sector. With investors (seemingly) preferring to wait and see how the existing companies tackle the three big challenges: getting products to market, building consumer demand, and effectively scaling.
However, critics of the cultured meat industry may be missing the broader picture.
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Consider the following breakthroughs in the last five years alone:
- Cost Reduction: The cost of recombinant growth factors, essential for large-scale biomanufacturing, has decreased by more than 100-fold. This reduction has significantly lowered the cost of necessary growth media.
- Media Formulations: There has been significant progress in developing publicly available chemically defined media formulations for skeletal muscle cells…
- Bioreactor Innovation: The introduction of cutting-edge bioreactor designs has transformed the process of culturing cells in high densities and on a large scale.
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I’m truly excited about the future of cultured meat and even more so for the incredibly cool technology that’s being developed to support this growing industry. Rumours of its death are much exaggerated; the cultured meat revolution has only just begun!
