New Age Meats has received fresh investor backing to gear up for the planned commercial launch of its cultured-sausage products in the US next year.
Led by founder and CEO Brian Spears, New Age Meats has secured US$25m in a Series A round to build a 20,000 square-foot pilot production plant in Alameda, California, close to its headquarters in Berkeley.
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With new investment in hand, manufacturing is due to start “by 2022”. The first products slated for launch are sausages. Pending approval from US regulators, the company plans to roll out the sausages in the US in next year.
New Age Meats’ cell-cultured meat is combined with plant-based ingredients to create what the company calls “hybrid” products.
The business says its “production process is designed to scale-up quickly to meet demand in rapidly growing markets, such as Asia”.
South Korea’s Hanwha Solutions, part of the energy, petrochemicals and real estate conglomerate Hanwha Group, led the Series A round as a new investor.
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By GlobalDataHanwha also has a food resources division engaged in the import and distribution of beef, pork and lamb, with a “strong partnership with global food brands”, according to its website. It has also developed its own pork brand in partnership with Chile-based food manufacturer Agrosuper – Authentic Andean Pork. Just Food has reached out to the Asian company to confirm what its plans are in cultured meats.
Spears, who set up the business in 2018, said in a statement: “Hanwha’s vast financial resources, along with its interest in the nutrition business made it a natural choice as a financial ally and strategic partner. With the backing of Hanwha and our other investors, we are well on our way to becoming the largest and most innovative meat company on Earth.”
Prior to the latest cash injection, New Age Meats also won $2m in February this year from an investor group, and $4.7m in 2020 in two separate rounds, including seed funding.
Follow-on contributions to the Series A included US-based VC firm SOSV’s IndieBio fund, New York technology investor FF Venture Capital and Siddhi Capital, another VC in New Jersey. TechU Ventures in New York also took part.
Spears added: “If the pandemic and climate change has underscored anything, it is that the world needs to find dramatically better ways to satisfy the growing demand by billions of people for protein without harming animals or further hurting the environment.
“We believe our hybrid products, which combine cultured meat with plant-based protein, do just that. And we’re moving as quickly as possible to scale up and satisfy the growing demand for affordable meat alternatives around the world.”
