Memphis Meats: $161 Million In Latest Funding Round In Quest Of Meat From Cells

Memphis Meats is a 5 year old start up. The company is focused upon bringing the ability to "grow" meat from cells, bypassing the animal altogether.

The "alternative" meat market is growing. Companies such as Beyond Meats and Impossible Foods are approaching the market by producing "meats" from plants. Thus far, at least from the financial perspective, they are a hit with the market.

Memphis Meats is taking a bit different approach. This is technically not an alternative to meat since it truly is meat. The main idea is to "grow the steak without the cow". By using stem cell technology, the goal is to produce lab grown products, reducing the dependency upon traditional farming and ranching.

A shift like this could have a huge impact. Roughly 25% of the world makes their living from farming related services. While it is consistently fell, as a percentage of the whole, in the United States, it is still a formidable industry.

By growing meats in a lab, the goal is to make the products in a humane way, use less water, and free up millions of acres of land. At present, the cost is still too high for mainstream adoption but progress is being made.

The latest round of funding brings the investment in Memphis Meats to $180 million. There are some big names involved such as Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Cargill, and Softbank.

Issues about sustainability are on everyone's mind. The environmental impact of ranching is starting to penetrate the mindset of the mainstream.

Another factor is the growth in population. Nature grows a cow at a certain pace. The goal with lab grown meat is that the time from start to steak is reduced. This could go a long way to helping offset any potential food shortages we might be facing. Of course, this also enables the production of food locally since lab grown meat could be manufactured anywhere, unlike ranching which requires land.

Priti Youssef Choksi, a partner with Norwest, said that companies like Memphis Meats help address a problem in the meat industry: Demand for meat is growing, but factory farming is bad for the environment.

"There's just no way our planet can sustain that kind of demand on our land and water," Choksi said. Norwest is investing $25 million in this round. "We are super excited about Memphis and their team."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/22/business/memphis-meats-series-b/index.html

Companies like Tyson Foods, one of the largest food producers in the United States, is getting in on the act. It invested in Memphis Meats, partially to stay relevant in the industry. Companies that does not view this as a potential disruption could get caught off-guard.

The latest round of funding is going to enable the company to build a plant to develop prototypes to show customers. Thus, we are not going to see these products on store shelves any time soon. The plant is expected to be completed within 2 years.


If you found this article informative, please give an upvote and resteem.

image.png

image.png

Image from article linked

Posted via Steemleo



0
0
0.000
1 comments
avatar

To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.

Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvoting this reply.

0
0
0.000