Israel: Cultivated meat company raises $105m in Series B

  • 8 July 2021
Aleph Farms’ latest investment round led by L Catterton as start-up allocates funding to developing new product lines
Chef of Aleph Farms next to its new cell-based steak prorotype
Aleph Farms raises $105m in its Series B

Cultivated meat start-up Aleph Farms completed a $105 million Series B funding round, led by private equity mammoth L Catterton’s Growth Fund.

The round was also supported by DisruptAD, VisVires New Protein, Israeli CPG group Strauss, Cargill, Peregrine Ventures and CPT Capital.

Funds will be used to scale the business as it works towards commercialising its cultivated beef steaks.

Aleph Farms will launch its product in 2022, pending final regulatory approval.

In the short-term it plans to develop new product lines and update its in-house technology platform.

“This additional capital from top-tier partners with unparalleled experience and expertise brings us significantly closer to our vision of providing secure and unconditional access to high-quality nutrition to anyone, anytime, anywhere,” Aleph Farms co-founder and CEO Didier Toubia said.

“We see our investors as partners for building this new category of meat and it was critical to us that they share our strong commitment to improving the sustainability of our global food systems,” Toubia added.

Aleph Farms 3D-printed steak
The start-up has developed a 3D printed cell-based ribeye steak

Aleph Farms was co-founded by Toubia, a biotech entrepreneur and The Strauss Group’s foodtech accelerator The Kitchen Foodtech Hub and Professor Shulamit Levenberg from the Biomedical Engineering Faculty at the Israel Institute of Technology.

In March 2020, Aleph Farms signed an MoU with Brazilian beef giant BRF to bring cultivated meat products to Brazil.

Its Series A funding round was led by VisVires New Protein, with participation from Peregrine Ventures and Strauss Group.

Although cultivated meat still faces many regulatory hurdles, the recent launch of Eat Just’s cell-based chicken nuggets in Singapore signified a significant step forward for the sector.

Investors in the space expect regulation in key markets like Europe and North America to follow Singapore in the coming months and years.