The Lod District Court in Israel has approved an application from cultivated meat startup Future Meat Technologies Ltd (doing business as Believer Meats) to open insolvency proceedings and appointed a trustee to represent the interests of its creditors.
Yoel Freilich, an attorney at law firm Gissin & Co, has been authorized as trustee to manage the company’s assets, while the court also issued a 40-day stay on all proceedings against the company, which temporarily freezes enforcement actions by creditors.
The court order, shared with AgFunderNews by Freilich, explains: “The temporary trustee is authorized to seize, safeguard, and insure the assets of the company in accordance with any applicable law. It is clarified that no assets shall be realized and no transactions shall be carried out without approval of the court.
“An order is hereby issued preventing repayment of past debts of the company and granting a stay of proceedings against it. The order shall remain in force for 40 days.”
In its bankruptcy petition, Believer Meats said its debts in Israel were around $11 million while its US subsidiary owed the parent company around $213 million, reported Calcalist (although the filing it shared did not contain those figures).
In its Dec 31 insolvency application, filed three weeks after it announced it had ceased operations, Believer Meats said a stay of proceedings was “required in order to prevent irreversible harm.” It did not go into details about what went wrong, but shared some new information:
👉The initial estimated cost of establishing the firm’s North Carolina facility was approximately $138 million; however, during the course of construction, the projected cost increased to approximately $154 million.
👉Construction was delayed, the regulatory approval process took longer than expected, and attempts to raise additional financing in 2025 failed: “As a result, the company has reached a state of insolvency and is unable to continue its operations.”
👉At the filing date, the firm’s cash balance was ILS 270,455 ($86k), with outstanding obligations to suppliers, service providers, employees, and authorities: “The company is unable to meet its obligations as they fall due. The company is insolvent both on a cash-flow basis and on a balance-sheet basis.”
It is unclear how the insolvency filing in Israel will impact the lawsuit recently filed in the US against Future Meat Technologies Inc by Gray Construction in North Carolina alleging $34 million in unpaid bills for design and build work at the firm’s US production facility.
According to an order filed with a US district court in North Carolina on Dec 29, the judge gave Believer/Future Meat until January 28 to provide a response. AgFunderNews has not seen a public Chapter 11 or Chapter 15 bankruptcy filing by Future Meat Technologies, Inc in the US.
UK-based Hedosophia, which AgFunderNews understands to be a leading investor in Believer Meats, has not responded to a request for comment.
Further reading:
What went wrong at Believer Meats? Sources point to risk, scale, and timing
Exclusive: Cultivated meat co Believer Meats sued by design build firm for $34m in unpaid bills
