Gourmey has acquired cultivated-meat peer VitalMeat to form a new business in France called Parima.
Paris-based Gourmey, which was set up in 2019 by a three-strong team of entrepreneurs, said the combination will create a “global leader in next-generation animal production”.
Gourmey and VitalMeat are focused on poultry products cultivated from animal cells.
Parima will bring together “complementary strengths in scalable cell cultivation and validated production economics”, according to a statement today (15 October). Financial terms were not disclosed.
Founded by chief executive Nicolas Morin-Forest, technology officer Dr Victor Sayous and cell biologist and chief scientific officer Antoine Davydoff, Gourmey claims it can produce cultivated duck meat for less than €7 ($8.12) a kilogram.
Morin-Forest, who will become CEO of Parima, said: “This is the right moment for consolidation and scale. We’ve proven economic viability and are now expanding across species by uniting two pioneering teams to lead the global shift toward efficient, sustainable animal production.”
Gourmey suggested the “cultivated-protein industry is entering a new phase of consolidation and scale-up”, although the commercial sale of such products has not yet been approved in many countries around the world, Singapore being one exception.
Last year, Gourmey said it had applied to sell its alternative foie gras in the EU, as well as in the UK, the US, Singapore and Switzerland.
It added today: “With Gourmey’s proven production economics and VitalMeat’s 2,000-liter bioreactor capacity, Parima now possesses a solid foundation to scale across species and markets.”
Meanwhile, Etienne Duthoit, the founder of VitalMeat, said: “Joining forces enables us to reach critical mass to serve global markets, from premium foodservice to large-scale B2B.
“By merging world-class expertise in cell lines, bioprocessing and food science, we accelerate profitability and unlock powerful growth drivers.”
Gourmey added that the combined businesses hold “15 patent families and over 70 patent applications”.
It said Parima will own “one of the strongest intellectual property portfolios in cultivated foods”, while VitalMeat’s “production-ready chicken cell lines complement Gourmey’s cost-efficient model, accelerating both industrial and regulatory success”.
Under the European Commission’s novel food framework, Parima is set to be the “first company worldwide positioned for approval of two cultivated” meats with duck and chicken, according to the statement.
