Brief: ADM, Tyson back cultivated meat company Future Meat in record-breaking $347m round

• Israeli cultivated meat startup Future Meat has raised $347 million in funding.
• In a statement, US agribusiness major ADM said it co-led the Series B round through its ADM Ventures unit alongside an “unnamed global investor in technology companies.” US meatpacker Tyson Foods and food manufacturer Rich’s also participated via their VC arms, as did Menora Mivtachim, S2G Ventures, Manta Ray Ventures, Emerald Technology Ventures, Cibus Fund, Bits X Bites, and the Sander Group. 
• Future Meat will use the proceeds to construct a production facility in the US, potentially in Boston or Minneapolis, founder and president Yaakov Nahmias told Bloomberg.

Why it matters:

Future Meat’s $347 million Series B is the largest single fundraise for a cell-cultured meat company to date, according to AgFunder data [disclosure: AgFunder is AFN‘s parent company.]

The Israeli startup also revealed that it can now produce its cultivated chicken breast product for just $7.70 per pound — or $1.70 per 110-gram chicken breast — down from under $18 per pound six months ago.

“We have consistently demonstrated that our single-cell technology and serum-free media formulations can reach cost parity faster than the market anticipates,” Nahmias said in a statement.

“We also demonstrated that our proprietary media rejuvenation technology enables cell densities greater than 100 billion cells per liter, translating to production densities 10 times higher than the industrial standard.”

Future Meat states that its “proprietary [fermenters] continuously remove waste products generated by ‘immortal’ tissue cells,” allowing it to “maintain a constant physiological environment which supports rapid, natural proliferation of animal cells.”