Swiss cultured meat startup Mirai Foods has expanded its Seed funding by an additional €1.8 million (~$2.15 million USD), bringing the total round to to €3.7 million (~$4.41 million USD), according to a story today in EU-Startups. Investors in the Seed round include German Family Office FRIBA Investment, Skyviews Life Science, investor Ulf Claesson, company Paulig through its PINC venture arm PINC, and Team Europe.
Mirai says that it’s the only cultivated meat startup in Switzerland. EU-Startups writes that the company’s culturing process does not use genetic modification, and that its products are being developed with EU market preferences in mind. The company had previously announced its smaller seed round at the end of January.
It’s actually not that surprising that Mirai expanded its Seed round. There has been a flurry of funding activity in the cultured meat space since the start of the year. Korean startup, CellMEAT raised $4.5 million. Israel’s Future Meat raised $26.75 million. The U.K.’s CellulaREvolution raised $1.37 million. Even Mosa Meat expanded it’s initial Series B round with an additional $10 million in February.
Given all of these players (and more!) developing their own takes on cultured meat, it makes sense that Mirai would want to bulk up its own warchest to better compete. All these different approaches to creating cultured meat are also leading to breakthroughs and dramatic reductions in prices. Some experts predict that cultured meat could reach price parity with animal-based meat in as little as five years. As such, it’s not shocking that more investors are interested in funding an early stage cultured meat startup like Mirai.
Mirai said it will use the funds to grow its headcount, bolster its lab and build a pilot production lab.
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