Israeli alt protein companies Bio Meat Foodtech and Rilbite have signed a non-committal memorandum of understanding (MOU) as Israel continues to be a greenhouse of foodtech innovation and investment.
Established in November 2020 for the purpose of investing in and holding foodtech research and development projects, Bio Meat Foodtech went public with an IPO this year and is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange valued at NIS 25.1 million (USD $7.6 million). Rilbite is a clean label plant-based meat producer which develops computational advanced hydrodynamics to create its next gen alt meats.
Bio Meat Foodtech will invest USD $1 million in Rilbite in return for a further 9% of its shares as part of the MOU, with Rilbite supplying products to Bio Meat Foodtech at a pre-determined cost as well as exclusive rights to provide Rilbite products in Israel’s retail market. Rilbite also grants license for the use of its technology, with Bio Meat Foodtech in talks with an unnamed third party developing cell-cultured fish products based on the technology that is part of the MOU.
Israel has fast become a foodtech innovation hotbed, with a wealth of experienced entrepreneurs and a host of high-tech accelerators, as well as increased demand for alt proteins from Israeli consumers. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly sampled Aleph Farm’s cell-cultured steak in 2020, while a recent GFI Israel study revealed the total investment in companies developing alt proteins in Israel has increased eightfold. Thriving startups are emerging in a wide range of sectors, including whole-cut alt meat specialist Chunk Foods, milk pioneer Imagindairy, and plant-based egg startup YO-egg, to name but a few.