Aleph Farms
Aleph Farms is a cultured meat startup. The company was co-founded in 2017 with the Israeli food-tech incubator “"The Kitchen"” of Strauss Group Ltd., and with Prof. Shulamit Levenberg of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and is headquartered in Rehovot, Israel. History. In December 2018, Aleph Farms released its prototype, a steak grown directly from bovine cells. In February 2021, Aleph Farms unveiled the world's first cell-based ribeye steak, procued through cell cultivation and 3D bioprinting. In May 2019, the company announced a US$12M funding round  led by Vis Vires New Protein. Other investors includes Cargill and M-Industry (Industrial Group of Migros). In July 2021, the company received $105 million in a Series B investment round. The round was led by L Catterton's Growth Fund and DisruptAD, which is one of the largest venture platforms in the Middle East. Other participants include international food giants Thai Union, BRF, CJ CheilJedang, and more funds from existing investors Strauss Group and Cargill. Skyviews Life Science was another new investor in this round, and existing investors VisVires New Protein, Peregrine Ventures and CPT Capital also participated . In November 2019, Aleph Farms indicated its current production costs of cultured beef were over US$3000 per kilogram, hoping to reduce it enough to enter the market by 2023. The company aims to reach price parity with conventional meat within five years of its initial market launch. The company has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BRF and Mitsubishi Corporation to bring cultivated meat to Brazil and Japan respectively. In April 2020, it reportedly wanted to start building its first pilot plant in 2021, expecting it to be operational and sells its first cultivated meat cuts to restaurants and  food service outlets by the end of 2022. In September 2021, actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio announced that he had funded Mosa Meat and Aleph Farms for undisclosed amounts of money, stating: 'One of the most impactful ways to combat the climate crisis is to transform our food system. Mosa Meat and Aleph Farms offer new ways to satisfy the world's demand for beef, while solving some of the most pressing issues of current industrial beef production.' In November 2021, Aleph Farms confirmed that its production facility of 3,000 m was under construction, and repeated its intended 2022 market  entry. The technology. The cellular agriculture technique used by Aleph Farms for their cultured meat is based on a process naturally occurring in cows to regrow and build muscle tissue. The company isolates the cells responsible for this process and grows them in the same conditions as inside the cow, to form muscle tissue typical to steaks. To mimic the natural environment and the 3D structure, cultivated meat companies- Aleph Farms in particular- use a scaffold which is required to achieve the appropriate characteristics that allow cell adhesion and subsequent proliferation and tissue development. The extent to which the biology  of the muscle is replicated, determines the complexity of the tissue engineering process that must be utilized. Like-for-like pieces of muscle (e.g. steak) require a system containing multiple cell types growing in an organized manner, on a structure that is similar to the blood vessel network. The company developed a technique that enables different cell types to grow together. In order to grow the meat without the need for raising livestock, a small amount of cells is extracted from an animal through a small biopsy and is placed afterward in a nutrient-rich broth. Within a cultivator designed  to mimic the internal environment of the animal’s body, the cells then multiply, differentiate, and form the same tissue as inside the animal's body. After the steak in the cultivator has grown to the desired size and characteristics, the steak is harvested and ready for cooking.