Memphis Meats
Memphis Meats is a food technology company headquartered in Berkeley, California aiming to grow sustainable cultured meat. The company was founded by Uma Valeti, Nicholas Genovese, and Will Clem. Valeti was a cardiologist and a professor at the University of Minnesota.
The company plans to produce various meat products using biotechnology to induce stem cells to differentiate into muscle tissue and to manufacture the meat products in bioreactors. In February 2016 Memphis Meats published a video of a cultured meatball, and in March 2017 the company published a video of cultured chicken and duck dishes.
In August 2017, Memphis Meats announced that it had raised a $17 million Series A funding round. The round was led by DFJ, and also included investment from Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Suzy and Jack Welch, Cargill, Kimbal Musk and Atomico.
The production cost of the cultured beef was, and the production cost of the cultured poultry was. As of June 2017 the company had reduced the cost of production to below $2,400 per pound. The company said it anticipated cost reductions and commercial release of its products by 2021.
In January 2020, Memphis Meats raised a $161 million Series B. The round was led by Softbank Group, Norwest, and Temasek. Also joining the round are new and existing investors including Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Threshold Ventures, Cargill, Tyson Foods, Finistere, Future Ventures, Kimbal Musk, Fifty Years and CPT Capital.
Memphis Meats expects to use the funds to build a pilot production facility and to hit a major milestone of launching products into the market within the coming years.
