Chinese startup given $10 million to try to grow pork

Funding in the amount of more than $ 10 million was attracted by the Chinese startup for growing cellular meat Joes Future Food. On October 22, writes the publication AFN.

Joes Future said it will use the funds to expand its domestic and international presence, improve technology, reduce production costs and build a pilot farmed meat production line.

Co-founder and CEO Ding Shijie said, “The company will further strengthen its core team, increase investment in research and development, and accelerate commercialization to bring cell cultured meat to the tables of Chinese consumers, providing them with healthier, safer, and less productive product than carbon-based meat products.”

The Nanjing-based startup is developing materials and methods for growing meat in cell cultures, with a focus on China's favorite pork.

The company was spun off from Nanjing Agricultural University at the end of 2019 and claims to be the first company in China to successfully produce cell-based meat farming.

“Since 2009, the team has been conducting research into myoblast formation [muscle tissue formation] and stem cell differentiation. They created a new method for in vitro cryopreservation of stem cell cultures, developed serum-free culture media, and invented a cultured meat production scaffold containing an array of micronutrients,” said Li Liang, founding partner of Hillhouse Capital.

According to him, these innovations allowed Joes Future "to break the technological monopoly of foreign countries" in the production of meat based on cell cultures.

“By developing a serum-free medium with a clear chemistry, Joes Future will support cost reduction and large-scale mass production of cell cultured meat in the future […] Technological breakthroughs in this area have a great future for carbon neutralization in China and around the world,” he added.

Joes Future previously raised $3.13 million in pre-funding from Matrix Partners China.

While the meat farming start-up market in China is still a few steps behind Singapore and the US , Chinese researchers, investors and policy makers are increasingly focusing on this area.

If the technology becomes scalable and economically viable, it could prove to be a critical element in meeting China 's ever-increasing demand for protein.