Cell Based Tech Weekly – Mosa Meat Funding, SOSV Launches IndieBio NY, Former CGC Chief Invests in Octarine Bio

Categories Weekly Report

Dutch cell based meat company, Mosa Meat, raised an undisclosed amount from US venture capital firm Lowercarbon Capital and Dutch animal nutrition and fish feed company Nutreco. https://cellbased.link/ngd

Mosa Meat raised $8,343,037 in 2018 from Bell Food Group, BELL (SWX) and M Ventures (venture capital arm of Merck MRK (NYSE).

Why We Care: In addition to the financing, Mosa Meat and Nutreco announced a strategic partnership through which Nutreco will support in managing manufacturing supply chains at a global scale.

There may also be some collaboration on “ingredient inputs” although it is unclear if this refers to cell culture media or which specific ingredients Mosa Meat would be sourcing. Nutreco’s expertise is in supplying animal feed through two of its major subsidiary companies, Skretting and Trouw Nutrition.

  • “The new investment expands on that expertise, presenting an opportunity to consider how Nutreco companies may also support alternative protein suppliers with sustainable ingredients.” Nutreco Investment Director, Joost Matthijssen stated in an email.

Investments

🗽 SOSV venture capital life sciences accelerator, IndieBio has helped launch tissue engineering and cellular fermentation companies including Clara Foods, Finless Foods, Geltor, Memphis Meats, and New Age Meats to name a few.

Now, SOSV is launching a New York based IndieBio accelerator where the firm, according to company press release plans to “double down on life sciences” which includes cellular agriculture. https://cellbased.link/6dt

CBT is based in New York and I look forward to seeing more cellular agriculture in the region!

🍄 Based in Denmark, Octarine Bio, a company using microbial fermentation to synthesize psilocybin derivatives and cannabinoids raised an undisclosed amount from Bruce Linton, the founder and former CEO of Canopy Growth Corporation (“Canopy Growth”). https://cellbased.link/7xq

The company is focused on production of rare and functionally superior cannabinoid molecules (think qualities such as solubility, bioavailability, absorbability, psychoactivity). I am keeping a close watch on Octarine as they work to close out this initial funding round in the first half of 2020.

Events

For those of you who are wondering when cell based meat will be on the market: The Industrializing Cell- Based Meat Summit, March 24-26, 2020 @ Hotel Kabuki, San Francisco. … may have some answers for you.

Here are some highlights:

  • Ryan Bethencourt, CEO Wild Earth is a keynote presenter discussing the topic: Creating Realistic Flavor in Cell-Based Meats & the advancements that have been made in the last 12 months to recreate realistic taste of meat.
  • Panel discussion on cell culture media, featuring Mercedes Vila, CTO & Co-Founder, Biotech Foods, Leo Groenewegen CEO, CellularRevolution, Max Rye, CTO, Turtle Tree Labs, which will address what  what critical components would be essential prerequisites to a usable cell culture media formulation.
  • Paul Shapiro, Chief Executive Officer & Co founder, The Better Meat Co. providing an analysis on cross compatibility between current antibody purification methodologies & the needs of the cell-based meat industry.

Tickets: https://cellbased.link/tx8