Food & Drink Process & Packaging Issue 14 2017 | Page 43

The $17M Series A round was led Memphis Meats plans to use the Memphis Meats. “The world loves by DFJ, a leading venture capital firm funds to continue developing delicious to eat meat, and it is core to many that has previously backed Tesla, products, to accelerate its work in of our cultures and traditions. Meat SpaceX and Skype. In an unpreceden- scaling up clean meat production, and demand is growing rapidly around ted milestone, Cargill and other food to reduce production costs to levels the world. We want the world to keep industry giants invested in Memphis comparable to – and ultimately below eating what it loves. However, the Meats as part of the round. Bill Gates – conventional meat costs. The com- way conventional meat is produced and Richard Branson invested in the pany expects to quadruple its head- today creates challenges for the envi- round, as did Atomico, one of Europe’s count, and has already begun growing ronment, animal welfare and human largest VC firms. New Crop Capital, its team of chefs, scientists creative health. These are problems that ever- SOSV, Fifty Years, KBW Ventures, people and business people. yone wants to solve, and we can solve Inevitable Ventures, Suzy and Jack Welch, Kyle Vogt, and Kimbal Musk also participated. Multiple research institutions joined the round. The company has now raised $22M to date. them by bringing this incredible group “We’re going to bring meat to the plate in a more sustainable, afforda- ble and delicious way,” explains Uma Valeti, M.D., co-founder and CEO of of partners under one tent. This group will help us accelerate our progress significantly.” “Clean meat is an enormous tech- nological shift for humanity, and an FDPP - www.fdpp.co.uk 43