Holywood actor Ashton Kutcher has announced that he is backing an Israel-based cultured meat startup MeaTech through his venture capital fund Sound Ventures.
He along with Guy Oseary, a serial entrepreneur and talent manager, and Effie Epstein, had established the investment firm in 2015 with an aim to support “the next generation of clean, circular, and sustainable businesses”.
Recently, Leonardo DiCaprio had also invested an undisclosed amount in cultivated meat start-ups Mosa Meat and Aleph Farms. He also joined their boards as an advisor.
The collective will collaborate with MeaTech to accelerate its growth by developing and commercializing the company’s proprietary cultured meat production technologies.
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MeaTech is working to create a sustainable alternative to industrialized animal farming by developing its proprietary cultured meat production processes based on advanced 3D bioprinting and tissue engineering technologies. MeaTech aims to be a leader of cultivated meat production for a variety of species offerings.
Referring to the new development, Kutcher said in a statement, “We are delighted to partner with MeaTech and assist it in its journey to become the market leader in cultured meat production. We are excited about MeaTech’s innovative technologies, which we believe position MeaTech to be the leader in industrial scale production of cultured meat, a key for a more sustainable and clean meat production.”
“We intend to work closely with MeaTech’s management to help MeaTech implement its strategy and achieve its goals and global success by leveraging our marketing, strategic expertise, and network. The engagement with MeaTech is in line with our group’s mission to provide sustainable solutions through company building, investment, and acceleration of companies and technologies across various sustainability domains.”
Sharon Fima, CEO of MeaTech, said, “We are extremely excited to announce our strategic collaboration with such an entrepreneurial, visionary group. We believe this engagement will help accelerate our journey in becoming the global leader in the cultivated meat industry. We will leverage their expertise and relationships with key industry players to help us propel our strategy, go-to-market activities and brand.”
Listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker “MITC”, MeaTech 3D is one of the pioneers in cultured meat revolution. The company initiated activities in 2019 and is headquartered at Ness Ziona in central Israel, with a subsidiary in Antwerp, Belgium.
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The company believes cultured meat technologies hold significant potential to improve meat production, simplify the meat supply chain, and offer consumers a range of new product offerings.
MeaTech has a particular focus on premium, centre-of-plate meat products, such as structured marbled steaks. This includes development of high-throughput bioprinting systems.
Towards this goal the company is developing a suite of advanced manufacturing technologies to produce cell-based alternative protein products. This includes development of cell-lines for beef, pork, and chicken. Cell-based ingredients are also believed to have significant potential to enhance the taste, aroma, and texture of plant-based protein products.
