An apparent record round of funding ($400 million) will enable Upside Foods -- formerly Memphis Meats -- to continue commercializing its cultured meat products and to build a commercial facility, although a site hasn't been publicized.
Upside claims the $400 million Series C round of funding, announced today (April 21), is the largest investment to date in the cultivated meat category. It "will help us drive product innovation, partnerships and the infrastructure needed to make cultivated meat at scale ... including building a new commercial facility that will target making tens of millions of pounds of Upside meat every year."
"Upside has reached an historic inflection point, moving from R&D to commercialization," said Uma Valeti, founder & CEO. "Working in partnership with our world-class coalition of investors, we're excited to bring delicious, sustainable and humane meat to the consumers around the world."
Just this month (April) we published a cover story on cultured meats, with the emphasis that it's likely the first product will get FDA and/or USDA approval this year ... although the first product could be bluefin tuna.
This round of funding was co-led by Temasek, a global investment company headquartered in Singapore, and the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund (ADG), "reflecting the global impact of and interest in our work." Other investors, although not clearly identified with this round of funding, include Cargill, Givaudan, Tyson Foods, Whole Foods and its CEO John Mackey plus individual investors Bill Gates, John Doerr and Kimbal and Christiana Musk.
The company now has more than 170 employees. In the past year, it acquired cultivated seafood company Cultured Decadence, rebranded from Memphis Meats to Upside Foods and opened its Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC) in Emeryville, Calif.
