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2020 State of the Industry: Cultivated Meat

Blake Byrne

Good Food Institute Science & Technology Team

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The Good Food Institute

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Science and Technology

Advancing foundational, open-access research in alternative proteins and creating a thriving research and training ecosystem around these game-changing fields.

Corporate Engagement

Partnering with companies and investors across the globe to drive investment, accelerate innovation, and scale the supply chain—all faster than market forces alone would allow.

Policy

Advocating for fair policy and public research funding for alternative proteins.

GFI is a 501(c)(3)nonprofit developing the roadmap for a sustainable, secure, and just protein supply. We focus on three key areas of work:

GFI officially earned GuideStar's 2019 and 2020 Platinum Seal of Transparency—obtained by less than 1% of nonprofits—reflecting our commitment to maximum impact, efficiency, and inclusion.

We work as a force multiplier, bringing the expertise of our departments to

the rest of the world.

United States

Brazil

India

Europe

Asia Pacific

Israel

100+ staff in 6 regions

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Total meat

3

= 10 MMT

Alt meat

Additional meat demand by 2050

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Source: United Nations, Livestock’s Long Shadow (report)

Sustainably

Industrialized animal agriculture is in the top 2-3 most significant contributors to the world’s most pressing environmental issues such as water use, air pollution, and loss of biodiversity.

Industrialized animal ag is responsible for 14.5% of greenhouse gas emissions—a higher share than the entire transport sector.

Sources: World Resources Institute (calorie formula);�UN FAO (land use)

Efficiently

It takes nine calories of food fed to a chicken to produce one calorie of meat.

75% of agricultural land is used for raising and feeding livestock yet only provides 1/3 of the global protein supply.

Sources: FDA (animal-consumed antibiotics); IMS Health (human-consumed antibiotics); United Nations IAGC (AMR)

Safely

Animals in the United States consume more than 2x as many medically important antibiotics as humans do.

Based on current trends, medical experts expect 10 million annual deaths from antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in 2050, a 14-fold increase over current deaths.

How will we feed 10 billion people by 2050?

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GFI’s approach

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The Challenge

Current meat, egg, and dairy production is unsustainable and inefficient. It is a key driver of climate change, environmental degradation, and antibiotic resistance.

GFI’s Solution: Accelerating alternative proteins

We can create meat, eggs, and dairy more sustainably and efficiently by making them from plants, cultivating them directly from cells, or producing them by fermentation.

Instead of asking consumers to give up the foods they love, GFI is accelerating the transition to alternative proteins by helping companies make products that are delicious, affordable and accessible.

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Simply put

...

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The Alternative Protein Landscape

Plant-based

Photo courtesy of Plant-Based Seafood Co.

Fermentation

Photo courtesy of Ecovative Design: Atlast Food Co.

Cultivated

Photo courtesy of Wildtype

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Simply put

...

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Cultivated meat: genuine animal meat that can replicate the sensory and nutritional profile of conventionally produced meat because it’s comprised of the same cell types arranged in the same three-dimensional structure as animal muscle tissue.

Source: GFI analysis

Image Credit: SuperMeat, New Age Meats, Wildtype

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2020:

Year at

a glance

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Commercial landscape

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Cultivated meat production

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Source: GFI analysis

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Leading edge of the industry: pilot scale

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Image Credit: SuperMeat, Meatable, Future Meat Technologies

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First sale

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Source: Eat Just Inc.

And, on the topic of the first commercialized product, it is impossible to tell the story of cultivated meat in 2020 without highlighting the regulatory approval and sale of a cultivated chicken product in Singapore by Eat Just.

And today, literally earlier this morning, it was announced that Eat Just and their cultivated meat brand Good Meat raised $170M in dedicated capital for their cultivated meat business. This is the industry’s second largest single financing event and is the first time an institutional investor, UBS’s hedge fund, has made a significant investment in CM.

Meat has for thousands of years been consumed by humans around the world and in every case it’s been from a slaughtered animal. Now we can offer real meat, no imitation, without the animal husbandry.

As momentous of a development as this is, we must keep in mind that this first sale is an important first step, not an end in itself. The goal is continuing to relentlessly pursue massively scaled production of cultivated meat.

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Expanding startup landscape

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Companies with initiatives in cultivated meat

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Source: GFI analysis

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Partnerships

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Service Provider

QSR

University

Nonprofit

Startup

Source: GFI analysis

Note: Graphic is not a comprehensive account of 2020 partnership activity in cultivated meat

Acquisition

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Frontiers in animal cell culture

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Source: GFI analysis

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Nomenclature

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Source: GFI analysis

GFI analyzed the websites, LinkedIn profiles, and media statements of all known cultivated meat startups globally.

For cases in which companies used more than one term, GFI made a determination of primary nomenclature based on prominence and frequency in public-facing materials.

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Investments

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Alt protein investment backdrop

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Source: GFI analysis of Pitchbook data

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2020 cultivated meat investment overview

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Source: GFI analysis of Pitchbook data

Total invested capital	Largest investment	Unique investors
$366 million in 2020 (72 percent of all-time investment, up 487 percent from 2019) $505 million (2016–2020)	$186.25 million �(Memphis Meats)	94 new in 2020 (62 percent growth from 2019) 245 total (2016–2020)
Invested capital deals	Series B fundraising rounds	Series A fundraising rounds
49 in 2020 125 (2016–2020)	2 in 2020 (the first for the cultivated meat industry)	6 in 2020 12 (2016–2020)

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Historical annual funding totals

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Source: GFI analysis of Pitchbook data

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Key funding rounds

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Source: GFI analysis of Pitchbook data

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Spotlight: seafood

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Source: GFI analysis of Pitchbook data

2020

$45M

2019

$19M

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2020’s most active investors

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Source: GFI analysis of Pitchbook data

Note: “Most active investors in 2020” includes any organization that made two or more publicly disclosed investments in a cultivated meat company during the calendar year 2020.

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Funding models in cultivated meat

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Source: GFI analysis

Note: Analysis inspired by Axial’s “Funding models in life sciences” newsletter

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Public sector funding

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Source: GFI analysis

$3.6M

$3.2M

$2.2M

$3.0M

2020 brought the first encouraging signs that the public sector is starting to recognize the importance of supporting cultivated meat research and commercialization

The NSF awarded a grant to UC Davis for open-access cultivated meat research. It is the U.S. government’s largest investment in cultivated meat research to date and the first cultivated meat grant that the U.S. government has awarded to a university rather than a company. Similar grants were awarded to startups in the EU and Japan.

These small public investments are a good start, but we firmly believe that the public sector should be viewing cultivated meat and alt proteins broadly on par with electric vehicles when it comes to climate solutions and microchips in terms of international technology development and competition.

For deep dives on the case for public sector financing of alt proteins, I’d recommend you read two recent reports from leaders at Breakthrough Energy Ventures and the Breakthrough Institute.

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Science & Technology

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For a comprehensive look at the science of cultivated meat

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Source: GFI analysis

Check out GFI’s science of cultivated meat page: gfi.org/science/the-science-of-cultivated-meat/

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Research along the technology stack

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Source: GFI analysis

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Top journals cover cultivated meat research

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Source: GFI analysis

Publications in high-profile, highly cited journals provide powerful testimony that cultivated meat is a valued research topic in the scientific community.

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Moving down the cost curve

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Source: GFI analysis

Source: GFI analysis, CE Delft techno-economic analysis of cultivated meat (commissioned by GFI)

Competitive cost ranges with some conventional meats is achievable if medium costs are dramatically reduced, payback times for the facility are relaxed, and process productivity is highly optimized.

e.g., source amino acids from plant hydrolysates

↑

↓

Metabolic

engineering

Media

input costs

Efficient

media utilization

Facility CapEX

↓

↑

It’s no secret that today, at the current scale at which it is produced, cultivated meat is still more expensive to produce than conventional meat.

Results from recent open-access TEAs, which you can find links to in our state of the industry report, offer the following recurring recommendations for reducing production costs:

Metabolic engineering to make cells more tolerant to waste products, inhibiting catabolites and CO2, and increasing cell density
Reducing cell culture media costs by sourcing amino acids from cheap plant hydrolysates. This supply chain does not yet exist and will need to.
Capex reduction strategies will be especially important because capital expenditure (e.g., bioreactors) becomes the largest cost driver once cultivated meat is produced at industrial scale.

While the literature suggests that fundamental technological breakthroughs are not necessary to eventually achieve economically viable, scaled production, significant chemical and biological engineering challenges remain to further reduce costs and increase yields.

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Environmental impacts of CM

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Source: CE Delft lifecycle analysis of cultivated meat (commissioned by GFI)

Cultivated meat outperforms any form of conventional meat production when sustainable energy is used, and significantly outperforms conventional beef production when conventional energy is used.

Sustainable energy use is the key to unlocking cultivated meat’s huge climate and environmental impact mitigation potential and mutually reinforces global efforts toward decarbonization.

The environmental impacts of cultivated meat production are driven by:

amount and sourcing of energy used at facility
sourcing and production of inputs in medium
TBD
efficiency of medium use

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Formation of a research center

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Source: GFI analysis

X

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Tools for the industry

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Source: GFI analysis

Curriculum repository	Research labs	Collaborative directory


Bioreactor modeling	Research tool directory	PISCES / ATLAS

Ecosystem building

Advancing science

gfi.org

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Government & Regulation

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Regulatory overview

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Source: GFI analysis

USA

EU

Israel

Singapore

Japan

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Singapore

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Source: GFI analysis, Singapore Food Agency, Eat Just

X

In Nov 2020, SFA became the first national regulator to green-light the sale of a cultivated meat product

It is not a blanket approval of cultivated meat products; Specific to Eat Just’s chicken and its manufacturing process

SFA has not indicated whether this recent approval may form the basis for an encompassing framework

In November 2020, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) became the first national regulator to green-light the sale of a cultivated meat product. The approval of Eat Just’s cultivated chicken was the culmination of a regulatory process developed over more than two years. The SFA’s review was informed by a panel of outside experts who assessed the composition of the product, manufacturing process, integrity of the cell line, and potential for pathogenic contamination.

Importantly, this milestone is not a blanket approval of cultivated meat products; it is specific to Eat Just’s product and manufacturing process. Companies hoping to sell cultivated meat in Singapore must still submit regulatory filings for their specific formulations.

The SFA has not indicated whether this recent approval may eventually form the basis for a more encompassing regulatory framework.

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European Union

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Source: GFI analysis, European Commission, Chatham House

Use of GE?*

Novel Food Regulation

Regulation No. 1829/2003 (GMOs in food and feed)

*Genetic engineering

No

Yes

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Israel

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Source: GFI analysis, Israel Ministry of Health | Image credit: GPO Kobi Gideon

Food Control Service

“Appoint a body to serve these industries in order to connect and oversee all the stakeholders operating in this field.”

— Prime Minister Netanyahu

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Japan

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Source: GFI analysis, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), Yuki Hanyu

No comprehensive regulatory framework yet exists for cultivated meat

Externally sourced GFs

Immortalized cells via GM

Established a “Food Tech Study Group” to work on diversifying protein sources

Designated an official "Private-Public Partnership Working Team for Cellular Agriculture”

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United States

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Source: FDA, USDA, GAO, GFI analysis

Oversee cell collection/banking and all cultivation inputs and processes up through the moment of biomass “harvest” from bioreactors of both terrestrial and piscine cell mass.

Jurisdiction over most seafood products through processing and labeling stages.

The USDA will regulate further processing and labeling for terrestrial meats.

Plans to “develop regulatory requirements” for labels and solicit public comments for terrestrial meats.

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A few take homes

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Amara’s / Gate’s law

Boost tech talent pipeline

Marshal public sector

As we near the end of the presentation portion, I’ll round us out with a few take homes.

1) This concept coined by Roy Amara but often attributed to Bill Gates goes something like: “Most people overestimate what we can achieve in a year and underestimate what we can achieve in ten years.” I believe this is deeply relevant to the cultivated meat industry.
2) We must be hellbent on ensuring that cultivated meat is seen as a prestigious and consequential industry and field of inquiry so that we get the world’s brightest cell biologists, chemical and process engineers, food scientists, and commercial strategists working to address these problems.
3) We must enlist the governments to invest heavily and start the next space race, but this time in food.

Developments throughout 2020 suggest that while the industry is in the early stages, it may be on a trajectory that will lead to price competitiveness with conventionally produced meat. Only then will cultivated meat fulfill its long-term promise of providing real, craveable meat without the external costs of conventional meat.

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Q&A

For deep insights on the alternative protein industry, check out our website:

Contact us at corporate@gfi.org with any questions!

gfi.org

Download State of the Industry reports at:

gfi.org/industry

Report includes link to a feedback form. Tell us what we missed or got wrong.

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@GoodFoodInst

/TheGoodFoodInstitute

www.gfi.org