Redefine Meat Adds $135 Million Ahead Of Next Big Steps Towards Global Commercialisation

Israel’s 3D-printed plant-based meat innovator Redefine Meat has closed a $135 million investment round. It represents one of the largest rounds of its kind to date in Israel and brings the company’s total funding raised to $180 million. The new round was led by Hanaco Ventures and featured other pre-existing investors who firmed up their interest in the company. Synthesis Capital also participated.

Funding has been allocated to the construction of two new production lines. One will be domestic, the other located in the Netherlands. Expansion of restaurant collaborations is a priority for the almost four-year-old company. 

Expanding the international reach

Redefine Meat’s products are already served in 200 restaurants in Israel. It has made inroads into foreign markets by catering for the Google, Apple and Facebook (Meta) offices, as well as restaurants in the U.K., Germany and the Netherlands. Celebrity supporter of the brand, Marco Pierre White, has talked of his amazement at the products and uses them in his eateries. 

Securing one of the largest ever funding injections for a plant-based meat developer in Israel may come as a surprise to some. The financing round was kept largely quiet and was completed months ago. There have been more than 100 hires as a result of the cash injection. This represents a 320 percent personnel growth in one year. Predictions have been made by the company that this will be sustained over the next 12 months.

“Redefine Meat is working intensively to realize the vision of building a large worldwide meat company by using advanced technology and not animals, co-founder and CEO Eshchar Ben-Shitrit told Globes. “Each day the company records major achievements that are changing the food industry, from operating new machinery, new patents, and reaching a growing number of customers who are looking for us on restaurant menus, and we are very proud about all of this. Raising money is important but it is just a means for achieving our real goals.”

Despite the realistic appearance and whole-cut feel, Redefine Meat’s products are 100 percent plant-based. In this way, it sits alongside the burgeoning domestic cultivated meat sector in Israel but does not compete directly. In summer last year, the company unveiled five new plant-based meat products, ahead of its whole-cuts debut. 

Other names in the 3D sector include Novameat, from Barcelona and Vienna’s Revo Foods. Both have been quiet since announcing their presence in 2021, though the former has just announced the development of a hybrid 3D printed while cut. Blue in colour due to the use of algae, it features plant-based and lab-cultivated animal cells.

Israel in the press

Last week, Tel Aviv-brand SuperMeat said it had progressed the cause of cultivated meat. It held a double-blind tasting at its restaurant, asking professional food taster and Master Chef judge Michal Ansky to pick out the real chicken. In a film of the event, Ansky can be seen to be perplexed before finally selecting the wrong sample. Though surprised, she was delighted and heralded the development as a significant milestone in food production and human history. 

Regulatory approval for the sale of cultivated meat is still in progress in most countries, including the U.S. and Israel. In her annual 2022 industry trend predictions, Green Queen‘s Editor in Chief Sonalie Figueiras wrote that it is very likely this will be the year that the U.S. approves cultivated meat in some format.

All images courtesy of Redefine Meat.