MosaMeat NV bags US$55m financing

According to Mosa Meat NV, The $55m raised is part of a larger Series B funding round led by Luxembourg-based Blue Horizon Ventures, and co-financed by Bell Food Group, M Ventures and other mission-based investors and advisors. Upon the financing, Dr. Regina Hecker, Partner at Blue Horizon Ventures, joined Mosa Meat’s board of directors.

The company said, the proceeds will be used to extend its pilot production facility in Maastricht, develop an industrial-sized production line, expand its team. By 2023/24, Mosa Meat, which cultivates self-differentiating myosatellite muscle stem cells to make 800 million strands of bovine muscle tissue from one muscle biopsy, wants to market its cultured beef.

The company, which produced its first cultured beef burger for $250,000 said it has reduced the cost of its serum-free medium by 88 times since 2019 and does not require any genetic modification for its production: Following removal of growth factors, myosatellite cells differentiate on their own and form primitive muscle fibres that are no longer than 0.3mm long. Placing them in a gel that is 99% water helps the cells form the shape of muscle fibres.