The clean meat scene is heating up in Tel Aviv
Clean meat startups, traditional meat producers, investors, NGOs, and innovative food professionals gathered in Tel Aviv to discuss advancing clean meat product development in the Israeli innovation ecosystem.
The Good Food Institute co-hosted the event with The Kitchen FoodTech Hub by Strauss, an incubator for food tech innovators (including a clean meat company!), and Israel Initiative 2020, a non-profit organization advancing food tech in Northern Galilee. This gathering brought together the three Israeli clean meat companies —SuperMeat, Aleph Farms, and Future Meat Technologies — as well as Soglowek Industries, one of Israel’s largest meat producers.
Israel has emerged as an early leader in the global clean meat sector. According to Managing Director of GFI in Israel Dr. Yaron Bogin, “Israel has the right mix of academic and entrepreneurial innovation, educated and skilled workforce, acknowledged R&D capabilities, strong economy, significant governmental support, flourishing venture capital industry, and a ‘global first’ market approach.”
At the July 17th event, participants discussed the steps required for successful commercialization, from product development to fork. Other topics included: the role of the traditional meat industry, in Israel and abroad, in further accelerating the ecosystem; private and governmental funding; technological challenges and the plans to overcome them; the current regulatory situation for clean meat in the United States and in Israel; and what can be done to advance fair regulations for clean meat.
The clean meat sector in Israel is rapidly gaining momentum with significant investment and progress in recent months. SuperMeat, which is developing clean poultry, raised $3M in seed funding and formed a strategic partnership with PHW, one of Europe’s largest poultry producers and an equity investor in the company
Future Meat Technologies announced a $2.2M seed investment round co-led by Tyson Ventures, the venture capital arm of Tyson Foods, one of the world’s largest food producers. Aleph Farms, co-founded by The Techion and Israeli food-tech incubator The Kitchen recently announced the development of a new 3D technology enabling it to improve both the structure and composition of clean meat. Finally, a fourth Israeli clean meat company, BioFood-Systems, recently joined the sector. BioFood-Systems is developing clean beef.
With 120 people — including VCs, investors, NGOs, academic researchers, entrepreneurs, students and government professionals — convening in Tel Aviv to discuss the developments and continuing growth of the clean meat sector, this is just the very beginning of the exciting path forward for this burgeoning industry in Israel.
Author
Mary Allen
Mary Allen is a science writer, creative strategist, and GFI alum focused on the intersection of sustainability and emerging technology. Find more of her work at mary-allen.com.
