Brave New Meat

Joshua March is the co-founder and CEO of SciFi Foods. They are developing cultivated beef and starting with hybrid products to bring the price down to comparable prices with conventional beef.

In this episode we discuss:

• CRISPR in cultivated meat
• Raising investment from Coldplay and A16Z
• The regulatory landscape in the US
• Building their first facility in the US

Mentioned in the episode -

Food Dive Article: SciFi Foods reduces the cost of cell-based beef 1,000-fold

Raise from A16Z: $22M Series A

Dr Aletta Schnitzler, the Chief Scientific Officer of TurtleTree, which is replacing animal-derived milk products with fermentation and cell-based products.

Aletta is incredibly knowledgeable about the technology and people in this space. 

We cover a lot of ground including:

Her efforts establishing Merck KGaA, Darmstadt Germany in the cultivated meat space

Transitioning from a global corporation to rising startup Turtletree

How they are operating as a team of 40 globally with their Singapore based headquarters and labs in Boston and California.

One of their first upcoming products, lactoferrin and their roadmap from baby formula and ultimately to milk.

Her perspective on the Techno-Economic Analysis by David Humbird and 

Whitespace opportunities for entrepreneurs in food tech.

Hope you enjoy the show and reach out to me on twitter @meat  

Elysabeth is the Founder of Plant Powered Consulting and enjoys helping small, medium, and large companies with business development, marketing/branding and PR strategies.

She also produces and hosts the weekly series The Plantbased Business Hour. On PBH, Elysabeth features venture capitalists, CEOs, analysts, innovators, and entrepreneurial start-ups from around the globe who are shaping the plant-based market.

Elysabeth is also the Co-Founder of VegTech Invest (Ticker: EATV): This ETF features 40+ companies in the plant-based and climate industry and is publicly traded.  

Disclaimer this is not financial advice and I am not a financial advisor. Do your own research this is for informational purposes only.

In this episode:

Plant Powered Consulting

Plantbased Business Hour

Future Food Tech Conference - March 24th and 25th: Use the code BRAVE10 for 10% off registration fees.

Gamechangers on Netflix- Everyone should watch this to counter the narrative that you need animal protein to be an athlete. 

VegTech ETF

John Salley with Elysabeth - Protein or Fiber?

Gelatex is using its nanofiber technology to develop scaffolding for cultivated meat companies. This EstonianTechstar alum pivoted from disrupting the leather industry to food tech.

In this interview, Co-founder Märt-Erik Martens contrasts their technology with other approaches used for cultivated meat scaffolding.

We also discuss his upcoming panel with Josh Tetrick at Future Food-Tech Summit and he drops a sneak peek of what might come up.....

Future Food-Tech Summit

This March 24-25 the Future Food-Tech Summit will unite food brands, investors, start-ups and technology leaders in San Francisco for an unmissable gathering.

If you’ve missed sitting round a table and pooling ideas with industry colleagues, catching up with old friends and making those all-important corridor-connections, don’t miss your chance to join me and the global community at the Marriot Marquis in San Francisco.

The summit also supports start-ups to gain the attention of potential investors and partners through a full program of start-up activity, including Innovation Challenges, pitch sessions, investor drop-ins and TechHub displays and will be hosted online as well as in person, so that you can choose whether to attend in San Francisco or log in from home.

Details: futurefoodtechsf.com

Use the code BRAVE10 for 10% off the registration fees

Roslin Technologies develops induced pluripotent stem cells for cultivated meat companies.

Ernst Van Orsouw took the helm last year to lead the company. In this interview, we discuss their induced pluripotent stem cell lines IPSCs and how they are different from the approaches many other companies are taking.


Future Food-Tech Summit

This March 24-25 the Future Food-Tech Summit will unite food brands, investors, start-ups and technology leaders in San Francisco for an unmissable gathering.

If you’ve missed sitting round a table and pooling ideas with industry colleagues, catching up with old friends and making those all-important corridor-connections, don’t miss your chance to join me and the global community at the Marriot Marquis in San Francisco.

The summit also supports start-ups to gain the attention of potential investors and partners through a full program of start-up activity, including Innovation Challenges, pitch sessions, investor drop-ins and TechHub displays and will be hosted online as well as in person, so that you can choose whether to attend in San Francisco or log in from home.

Details: futurefoodtechsf.com

Use the code BRAVE10 for 10% off the registration fees

 Orbillion is one of the most exciting companies in cultivated meat.

They are a YC alum startup and have a really different perspective on the future of cultivated meat - namely heritage breeds.  They are pursuing bison, elk,  and wagyu beef. 

In this episode we cover:

• The founding story of their team
• How they are different from competitors in the market
• Their time in YCombinator and Creative Destructive Labs
• Why she initially didn’t want to do a tasting event (here's how it came out!)
• Views on Joe Fassler’s Counter article

Future Food-Food Tech Summit (use code BRAVE10 to save 10%!)

This March 24-25 the Future Food-Tech Summit will unite food brands, investors, start-ups and technology leaders in San Francisco for an unmissable gathering.

If you’ve missed sitting round a table and pooling ideas with industry colleagues, catching up with old friends and making those all-important corridor-connections, don’t miss your chance to join me and the global community at the Marriot Marquis in San Francisco.

 The summit also supports start-ups to gain the attention of potential investors and partners through a full program of start-up activity, including Innovation Challenges, pitch sessions, investor drop-ins and TechHub displays and will be hosted online as well as in person, so that you can choose whether to attend in San Francisco or log in from home.

Find out more at futurefoodtechsf.com and use code BRAVE10 to save 10% on the registration fees. 

Christie Lagally is the founder and CEO of Rebellyous Foods, one of the most exciting startups in the plant-based meat industry. Their technology is changing the cost structure and scalability of the largest market protein market in the world - chicken.

In this episode we cover:

• Her background in aerospace engineering and at the Good Food Institute that helped her develop the idea for Rebellyous Foods
• Their time at Ycombinator
• Launching in multiple channels - online, retail, and the National School Lunch Program
• Why current plant-based chicken can't scale and how they are tackling the problem

Future Food-Food Tech Summit (use code BRAVE10 to save 10%!)

This March 24-25 the Future Food-Tech Summit will unite food brands, investors, start-ups and technology leaders in San Francisco for an unmissable gathering.

If you’ve missed sitting round a table and pooling ideas with industry colleagues, catching up with old friends and making those all-important corridor-connections, don’t miss your chance to join me and the global community at the Marriot Marquis in San Francisco.

 The summit also supports start-ups to gain the attention of potential investors and partners through a full program of start-up activity, including Innovation Challenges, pitch sessions, investor drop-ins and TechHub displays and will be hosted online as well as in person, so that you can choose whether to attend in San Francisco or log in from home.

Find out more at futurefoodtechsf.com and use code BRAVE10 to save 10% on the registration fees. 

Christoph Mayr is the co-founder and CEO of Mirai Foods, which is developing cultivated beef in Switzerland.

They've managed to bootstrap their way to a burger tasting event in a Switzerland restaurant, and followed up with a $4.5M USD seed round.

In this interview, Christoph and I discuss his entrepreneurial journey that led him from  Germany to South Korea with his company in the online food delivery industry and ultimately founding Mirai Foods.

A few highlights from this conversation - insights on raising VC money in Europe, his view of competition within the industry,  and defining a  cultivated meat "pilot plant".

We also get into his views about the Joe Fassel Counter article making waves in the industry.

Cultured Meat Symposium - October 22-23 in San Francisco: 

I hope you'll join me next month at the Cultured Meat Symposium. I attended last year virtually, and this year it will be an IN-PERSON event!!!

They have an amazing lineup of speakers, a few of which have been guests on the show.

My guest today is Michael Aucoin, CEO of Eat Beyond  (ticker EATBF).  They invest in the alternative protein industry and are one of the few ways retail investors can get exposure to this market.

In this episode, we talk about why people are so excited about the investment opportunity, where he sees the world’s protein coming from in 10 years, and details on their portfolio companies. 

Cultured Meat Symposium - October 22-23 : 

The Cultured Meat Symposium is coming up in October  and will be  hybrid in-person and online event. Hard to imagine, but we will actually get to see each other.  I’ve had over 20 episodes of this podcast and never actually met anyone in this industy in person. Not one. Here’s our chance.

My guest today is Sandya Sriram, co-founder and CEO of Shiok Meats based out of Singapore. They are one of the first seafood companies in the industry, focused on bringing crustaceans to market.

Prior to Shiok Meats, Sandhya co-founded two ventures - Biotech in Asia, a Singapore-based Biotech and Healthcare Information Hub in 2014, and SciGlo, an EdTech event management company in 2016. After graduating with a Ph.D. from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Sandhya pursued her postdoctoral at A*STAR, also in Singapore.

In this episode, we cover their full story, starting from their founding up to their recent big news of acquiring another cultivated meat startup, Gaia Foods.