Vow Sets a Funding Record Ahead of Becoming the World’s Second Approved Cultivated Meat Brand

Vow says its Series A funding round comes as it expects approval from Singapore to begin selling its cultivated meat in restaurants later this year.

Australian cultivated meat producer Vow has closed a record-setting $49.2 million Series A funding round to help bring its cultivated quail meat to Singapore. Funding was led by Blackbird and Prosperity7 Ventures, an Aramco Ventures growth fund, with backing from Toyota Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Grok Ventures, Cavallo Ventures, Peakbridge, Tenacious Ventures, HostPlus Super, NGS Super, and Pavilion Capital. The new funding comes nearly two years after Vow raised $6 million in seed funding.

Vow says its first product, dubbed Morsel—a cell-based quail meat—will hit Singapore restaurants before the year’s end, joining California-based Eat Just’s Good Meat as the only other cultivated meat approved for commercial sale and distribution in the world.

Changing the way billions eat

“When Vow was founded, we knew to change the way billions eat we had to do more than recreate what we know,” says Vow CEO and co-founder George Peppou.

“We’re thrilled to be toe to toe with the best companies in this space, moving at speed to reach huge milestones with a fraction of the capital of other companies,” he said.

“Our food diet is standardized, and neither healthy nor sustainable,” says Nadav Berger, general partner and co-founder of PeakBridge. “Much of our proteins come from limited animal-based sources which are harmful for both biodiversity and our health. Solutions and technologies that explore alternatives to conventional animal-based protein without compromising on taste, texture, nutrition and climate impact are here to stay.”

Vow is taking a unique approach to cultivated meat, replicating exotic meat including kangaroo and alpaca, along with quail, rabbit, and goat meat. The quail-based Morsel quail is expected to take meat in a new direction, Peppou said, with chefs using it in novel ways. The company says Morsel has a roasted umami flavor with seafood notes.

“By inventing new meats that are tastier, more nutritious, and serve functions traditional meats can’t, we can have an enormous impact,” Peppou said.

Fueling the cultivated meat category growth

The market approval and funding follow Vow bringing its first factory online in New South Wales last month. Dubbed Factory 1, the facility can produce approximately 30 tons of cultivated meat per year. The company says it’s also already working on Factory 2, which will be capable of producing meat at 100-fold the output of Factory 1.

“With Factory 1 Vow has quietly become a world leader in cultured meat, we are now operating at world leading scales and have achieved all of this in just three and a half years, with a fraction of the capital,” Peppou said.

Morsel is expected to hit restaurants in Singapore later this year.

Lead photo courtesy of Vow.