Reimagining our food systems
Why btov has invested in Aleph Farms
We have been thinking for some time about btov’s exposure in alternative proteins together with our FoodTech investors’ circle as it became more than clear that today’s eating habits are not sustainable on many dimensions. Just looking at the carbon dioxide impact 26% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from our food system, and thereof more than half of it can be derived from livestock with 14.5%. Given a rising global population and their increasing demand for meat products the negative effects will only become more severe, and access to these food products based on current value chains cannot be guaranteed at all.
Among the many potential solutions including plant-based and other alternative proteins across food types or greater efficiencies in farming, we have been intrigued by the possibilities of cultured meat lately that is producing actual meat from animal cells in a slaughter-free way. This due to our belief that the greatest lever for change is customer acceptance which is naturally based on taste and texture besides price and availability — thus, any meat alternative should actually taste like the “real thing” for a comparable price.
While we can already today observe the early beginnings of the food system transformation through plant-based food, additional choices for consumers will even accelerate this. Here, some studies proclaim cultured meat getting a market share of up to 35% by 2040 in a then USD 1,800bn large global meat market.
Consequently, more and more start-ups have also taken on this opportunity — with us counting well over 80 cultured meat companies alone. Due to the early stages of the cultivation technology, the inherent scaling-up issues still to be solved for cost parity and the go-to-market time, we have been looking in particular for already established players with a certain de-risked profile.
At this background, we are more than excited to announce our partnership with Aleph Farms. Having been introduced by long-term btov investor Gil Horsky to Aleph Farms’ co-founder and CEO Didier Toubia, we were immediately impressed by the size of their ambitions. Here, contrary to other players Aleph Farms wants to enter markets first with probably the most complex product at all — a steak, the “holy grail” of cultured meat. This approach is only possible due to their profound scientific background in tissue engineering (from Technion, and here co-founder Prof. Shulamit Levenberg).
The team has already proven the capabilities of their technology platform utilizing non-genetically modified animal cells for structured meat products by having introduced the world’s first cell-based ribeye steak earlier this year after a thin-cut steak back in 2018. Otherwise, in 2019 they have also more anecdotally cultivated meat in space for the first time through 3D bioprinting.
Today, focus is on scaling-up manufacturing for global commercialization of cultivated beef steaks and product portfolio expansion. This in cooperation with the world’s largest meat producers, such as Cargill, and by working together with regulatory agencies for market entry which can be as early as late 2022. However, cost parity is only expected to be reached at greater scale about five years thereafter.
At this background, Aleph Farms has just closed their USD 105m large Series B round co-led by growth investor L Catterton and DisruptAD from Abu Dhabi’s ADQ. We are humbled having been able to join this round alongside existing and select other new investors, including further global food and meat companies, such as BRF from Brazil or South Korea’s CJ CheilJedang.
After our collaboration with Didier and his team so far (they even conducted an ESG assessment on us during the due diligence), we are more than convinced about their outstanding commitment to improving the sustainability of our global food systems. Here, we are very much looking forward to supporting Aleph Farms in fulfilling their beyond important vision of providing secure and unconditional access to high-quality nutrition to anyone in the world.
Feel free to discuss complementary opportunities in the transforming food ecosystem by reaching out to Sven Eppert (Principal, Managed Partner Funds).
