Meatable has secured the backing of a range of VC investors to commercialise a cultured hamburger based on Cambridge and Stanford patents.

Meatable, a Netherlands-based cultured meat producer based on research at Cambridge and Stanford universities, on Sunday received $3.5m in a seed round led by VC firm BlueYard Capital. Startup studio Atlantic Food Labs and investment firm Future Positive Capital both took part in the round, as did venture capital fund Backed VC and a number of angel investors, including Charles Songhurst and Jörg Mohaupt. Founded earlier in 2018, Meatable hopes to manufacture meat products including chicken, pork and beef by proliferating a single cell from the animal specimen in a laboratory setting. The approach would be more environmentally sustainable than traditional meat production and could alleviate ethical concerns some hold about commercial-scale livestock farming. Meatable claims its approach is capable of yielding meat within three weeks and hopes to begin selling its first product, a lab-grown hamburger, within three years. The company advances research by Mark Kotter, a clinical lecturer in Cambridge’s Department of Clinical Neurosciences, and Roger Pedersen, a professor in the same university’s Department of Paediatrics who is also an adjunct professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. Meatable’s seed funding will help sustain recruitment as the business pursues new partnerships and accelerated product development. Jason Whitmire, general partner of BlueYard Capital, has joined the board of directors. Krijn de Nood, chief executive of Meatable, said: “In addition to the obvious value of novel meat production methods to society, the business opportunity is enormous. The global meat market is valued at $1 trillion and is expected to grow significantly, especially with the rise of middle-income countries in Asia.”

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