Prolific Cultured Meat

©Prolific Machines

Investments & Finance

Prolific Machines Reveals $42M Series A to Scale ‘Assembly Line’ Tech for Cultivated Meat

Cultivated meat startup Profilic Machines has emerged from stealth mode to announce a $42M Series A raise led by investor Arvind Gupta and the Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures. After raising the round a year ago, it is now opening a 25,000 sq. ft. facility in Emeryville, CA to expand its “fundamentally new approach” to cultivated fish, poultry and beef.  Unlike most cultivated meat companies, Prolific says it is focused on inventing a scalable manufacturing process first, followed by a product, in order to create the necessary infrastructure that can cost-compete with factory farming. As Henry Ford revolutionized automobile manufacturing by efficiently assembling cars, Prolific says it is inventing breakthrough technology to help cultivated meat reach the mass market.  Reducing costs Prolific was founded by …

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Sea & Believe Plant-Based Fish/ Cod

©IndieBio

Algae, Microalgae & Seaweed

Sea & Believe Develops Realistic Whole Cut Flaky Cod From Irish Seaweed

Sea & Believe, an IndieBio alt-seafood startup, has created what may be the first plant-based whole cod filet to flake like actual fish. Made from Irish seaweed and microalgae, the cod was recently featured during IndieBio’s Demo Day on April 26.  Co-founded by Jennifer O’ Brien, Sea & Believe specializes in working with native Irish seaweed – a singular ingredient harvested from the pristine waters of northwest Ireland. According to O’Brien, seaweed grown there has a distinct taste, texture and smell unlike any other seaweed variety. O’Brien first discovered the exceptional powers of seaweed as a child, when consuming and bathing with the ingredient helped heal her chronic asthma.  Determined to turn the magic of Irish seaweed into a business, she went on to create …

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Lypid Co-Founders

Jen-Yu Huang & Michelle Lee ©Lypid

Ingredients

Lypid Raises $4M in Seed Funding for PhytoFat: Animal-Like Vegan Fats

Lypid, a startup specializing in plant-based fats, has secured a $4 million seed raise to scale PhytoFat – a platform for creating animal-like fats from plant oils. Lypid plans to bring its product to market in 2022 before a wider expansion in the US, Europe and Asia. Created by Jen-Yu Huang and Michelle Lee, Lypid’s PhytoFat platform uses microencapsulation to trap liquid plant oils in water, yielding a product with animal fat-like qualities. The PhytoFat maintains its characteristics when heated above 329 degrees Fahrenheit (165 Celsius), providing vegan fat with a juicier texture, better melting behavior and improved nutrition profile.  PhytoFat can be customized to suit different meat-fat applications, such as chicken or beef, and contains no artificial additives, hydrogenation, or trans fats.  Using lighter …

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