7/2/2018 – Sirius Venture Capital, an investment firm based in Singapore has made a strategic investment in Israeli biotech and food tech startup SuperMeat’s seed funding round which raised a total amount of US$3 million.
Sirius Venture Capital said the seed funding round was led by US-based venture capital firm New Crop Capital, in addition to the participation with venture capital fund Stray Dog Capital.
The round came after the striking partnership forged between SuperMeat and PHW, which is one of Europe’s top poultry producers.
SuperMeat will use the proceeds from the seed round to achieve breakthroughs in the science of artificial meat production and develop a scalable process to produce this alternative meat source.
Founded in 2015, Supermeat develops cultured meat which is produced in a controlled environment in an efficient and sustainable process requiring significantly fewer resources than conventional meat production.
It develops clean meat production using growing cells painlessly extracted from a chicken. Grown in lab-controlled conditions, these cells can form quality chicken meat without slaughtering animals. As such, this removes the threats of being exposed to animal waste and disease.
“We are in the early innings of the global shift towards sustainable food systems,” said SuperMeat CEO and co-founder Ido Savir.
The demand for SuperMeat’s clean meat is already on the rise even as the company is three years away from distributing and selling its lab-made meat. In 2017, SuperMeat tested the market on Indiegogo and managed to raise US$230,000 in pre-orders.
Sirius’s founder and managing director Eugene Wong said, the global food revolution is imminent and that food-tech holds the answer to the future of food. “Our plan is to invest in a high-growth startup that will shift the food industry and reinvent dietary habits in the near future.”
Sirius’ placement in SuperMeat is its latest among a series of food-tech companies that the vc firm has invested in. Prior to SuperMeat, Sirius invested in Hargol, an Israeli startup that pioneers in sustainable grasshopper farming to yield consumable protein.
