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Aleph Farms, a startup co-founded in 2017 by Israeli food-tech incubator The Kitchen, has just completed a financing round of $11.65 million. The round was led by Vis Vires New Protein. Other investors in the round include Cargill and M-Industry (Industrial Group of Migros). The company previously raised $2.25M from The Kitchen, Peregrine Ventures, CPT Capital and New Crop Capital.
Aleph Farms is shaping the future of meat by producing real meat cuts from cow-cells, providing the same meat, experience, and taste - but without killing animals . They can also sidestep the need for antibiotics, potentially causing less foodborne illness risk. The company’s goal is to create, juicy, delicious steaks without any compromise on taste or texture.
Aleph's founding team includes Mr. Didier Toubia, Dr. Neta Lavon and Prof. Shulamit Levenberg, and is based on Prof.Levenberg’s research in tissue engineering done in the Technion Institute of Technology in Israel.
The companies unique non-GMO technology, relies on a natural process occurring in cows to regenerate and build muscle tissues. The company developed a way to isolate the cells responsible for that process and grow them outside of the animal to form the same complex tissue (muscle, fat etc…) typical to steaks. The products developed by Aleph Farms will be made of real meat, without harming animals and significantly reducing the impact on the environment.
The injection of capital will allow Aleph Farms to accelerate product development of its slaughter-free meat and to transform Alephs prototype (released last December) into a commercial product. Its cell-based meat will grow in large, clean bio-farm facilities similar to a dairy facility .
The Kitchen FoodTech Hub, established and owned by the Strauss Group, is Israel’s leading FoodTech incubator and seed investor. It specializes in investing in seed stage FoodTech ventures and building them into companies that have the potential to disrupt the traditional food value chain.
“We have full confidence in Aleph Farms team and the company’s 3D technology and their ability to create the world’s first cell-based meat steaks” says Jonathan Berger, CEO of The
Kitchen. “We are thrilled to see the same level of confidence from leading FoodTech investors such as VVNP and from international food companies such as Cargill and M-Industries”.
Key concerns about the meat industry include the unsustainable toll it takes on our environment, antibiotics resistance, and human health concerns (obesity, malnutrition, etc). Aleph Farms is providing new tools to address these challenges and to feed the worlds growing population without using up all of the planets resources in the process.
“We will be part of the long-term solution,” declares Didier Toubia, Co-Founder and CEO of Aleph Farms. “We intend to lead an open dialog with farmers and food producers. In addition, we continue to work closely with the regulators to ensure our products will be completely safe, healthy and properly labelled. We welcome the collaboration with the USDA and FDA as an opportunity to promote transparency and build trust with all stakeholders.”
