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Upside Meals will get $400M funding for commercial-scale facility


Upside Meals is making ready to make cultivated meat one thing actual to customers, and its record-setting $400 million Sequence C spherical is about to just do that.

This investment spherical, which is the most important so far within the cell-based meat house, contains cash for Upside Meals to construct a commercial-scale production facility with an annual capability of tens of thousands and thousands of kilos of cultured meat. It’s going to assist the corporate construct a cast provide chain for cellular expansion media. It’s going to fund client education schemes at the cultivated meat sector. And it is going to permit for extra analysis and building into cell-based meat, in addition to upload new positions to Upside’s staff of greater than 170 folks.

However this investment spherical brings extra than simply cash to Upside Meals. It is co-led by way of returning investor Temasek and new investor the Abu Dhabi Expansion Fund, however had participation from some large names. Cargill, Tyson Meals and Givaudan — which is making its first funding in Upside Meals — are a part of this spherical. Different contributors come with new buyers Baillie Gifford, John Doerr, SALT fund and Synthesis Capital; and returning buyers Invoice Gates, Cercano Control, CPT Capital, Dentsu Ventures, EDBI, Kimbal and Christiana Musk, Norwest Challenge Companions, SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund 2 and SOSV’s Indie Bio. 

“We all know that there’s such a lot experience in the market on the planet, and that we can not reinvent it, nor will have to we attempt to,” mentioned Upside Meals Leader Working Officer Amy Chen. “We are in reality desirous about companions like this who can assist us in the end boost up the trail to commercialization. I feel for us, our project on the corporate is in reality about making our favourite meals a drive for just right, and we will handiest do this and feature the affect that we would like after we develop to a scale that is significant.”

The government has no longer but given any cultivated meat maker approval to promote merchandise in the US, however Upside Meals has been running towards that function with the U.S. Division of Agriculture and the U.S. Meals and Drug Management for years. Pending approval, Upside Meals says it might have merchandise to be had for customers later this yr.

Upside Meals has raised greater than $600 million in its lifetime, and is now price greater than $1 billion. It lately has a pilot scale facility — its Engineering, Manufacturing and Innovation Middle, abbreviated as EPIC — running within the San Francisco Bay Space. EPIC, which began manufacturing in November, has an annual capability of fifty,000 kilos consistent with yr and is already some of the international’s greatest running cultivated meat vegetation. That is a large number of meat, however that facility is not sufficient for all of the possible customers.

Shifting on up

Since its founding in 2016, Upside Meals — then referred to as Memphis Meats — has been running towards the purpose the place it has advertisement scale amenities to create meat. From the labs the place the corporate made its first prototypes to greater bioreactors to the 53,000-square foot EPIC facility, Chen mentioned Upside Meals has been slowly scaling up its era and output. Because the yields grew, Upside Meals has been frequently each declaring and making improvements to the effectiveness of its era, expansion strategies and finish merchandise.

Chen mentioned Upside Meals has discovered the name of the game to scaling its cellular expansion, and it’s been ready to style the stipulations cells could also be beneath in a bigger bioreactor — like those who can be within the advertisement scale plant. She is assured the processes will paintings simply as neatly in a bigger heart, and they’ll have the ability to release easy methods to create extra meat in a quick, protected, affordable manner.

The sluggish development has additionally helped Upside Meals in alternative ways, Chen mentioned.


“I feel for us, our project on the corporate is in reality about making our favourite meals a drive for just right, and we will handiest do this and feature the affect that we would like after we develop to a scale that is significant.”

Amy Chen

Leader running officer, Upside Meals


“It is also simply taught us so much about being an running group,” she mentioned. “If you happen to take into consideration shifting from a lab-scientific-technical group to actually a advertisement and client group, such a lot of this is about flawless execution and the entire day by day operations of the way do you stay a plant in compliance with all of the protection procedures, just right production processes and ensure that we are following meals protection. And so all of the ones issues are in reality good things only for us to be development the ones muscle tissues as we get ready to transport to the following scale.”

The brand new plant continues to be within the design section, Chen mentioned. She could not give any specifics about location or measurement, regardless that it is going to be in the US. She additionally did not need to give a goal of completion date, however mentioned that the paintings at the making plans and construct out can be ongoing over the following couple of years.

Scaling is not just about development some other large plant, regardless that. Chen mentioned it is vitally essential to have an at-scale provide chain for cellular expansion medium. This does not exist nowadays, however bearing in mind the expansion medium is without doubt one of the extra a very powerful elements to the gap, it must be created and solidified. Upside Meals has been running on its expansion medium, and lately began the use of one it advanced with no animal elements. A few of the ones elements are amino acids which have been frequently utilized in meals for years. However some are a lot rarer now, or are handiest used for pharmaceutical packages. To ensure that the expansion medium for use for cells, Chen mentioned it all must be produced at food-grade requirements, and at a worth level that is smart for a meals commodity like meat.

“The dimensions of what we are speaking about hasn’t ever been achieved sooner than,” Chen mentioned. “There simply has no longer been the advance. It is in reality more or less development the ecosystem of improve for all of the other elements that move into the cellular feed itself, and that nourish the cells that develop into meat.”

A group of improve

On this investment spherical, Upside Meals is once more appearing it has improve from a number of large buyers, in addition to large gamers within the meals house.

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