Cell Based Tech Weekly – Thermo Fisher Scientific Enters Cell Based Meat Business, CUBIQ FOODS Raises $5.4M

Categories Weekly Report
source:thermofisher

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO) a global leader in life sciences, analytical instruments, specialty diagnostics, and laboratory products and services has entered the cell based meat space. https://cellbased.link/ddp 

It was just a matter of time before this legacy brand offered up their expertise in a wide range of biological technology fields including hardware and lab equipment with more specific tools including:

  • Cell Culture Media: Thermo is a leading supplier of cell culture media including specialty formulas for embryonic stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, hematopoietic stem cells. 
  • Growth Factors: Thermo has a line of growth factors designed for cell proliferation and differentiation.
  • 3D Cell Culture: Thermo offers a wide range of products for culturing cells in three dimensional shapes including extracellular matrices, and scaffolds like collagen gels, Fibronectin protein, Laminin protein, Poly-D-Lysine.

From the lab to plate: These products were not designed for mass production of food. While Thermo Fisher has a head start in working with mammalian cells, the formulas will need significant optimization to scale up at the costs required for cell based food production. 

Legacy Life Sciences: Thermo Fisher Scientific is not the first life sciences company we have seen eyeing cell based meat

  • German company, Merck KGaA, is also looking to leverage its cell biology expertise to accelerate cell based meat production (they have invested in cell based meat company Lab Farm Foods through an accelerator program) https://cellbased.link/hvs 
  • 3M is currently working with cellular agriculture (the exact companies remain confidential) to address a wide range of needs including membrane filtration and purification, efficient cell culture media recycling, scaffolding solutions, and food safety instrumentation.

Investments

CUBIQ FOODS, the Barcelona based company developing  omega-3 fats raised €5 million ($5.4 million) from Blue Horizon Ventures and Moira Capital Partners. This brings CUBIQ FOODS total funding to $10M. https://cellbased.link/8j3 

CUBIQ FOODS has two product lines set to launch by the end of 2020 — neither of which are actually cell based…

  1. Vegan Smart Fat: An oil/water emulsion made with vegetable oils. THe product is designed to be low calorie and low in saturated fats, while providing juiciness to products like plant based meat analogs. 
  2. Micro03 : High DHA Algae oil product with a unique microencapsulation approach to incorporate the omega-3 in a variety of products. 

Plant Based Pivot: According to CUBIQ FOODS CEO, Andrés Montefeltro, a cell based product that incorporates cultured animal cells will be a third product that is currently under lab and pilot scale. This cell based product will replace or complement the algae oil with omega-3 in the future.