Cultivated meat firms forecast to raise $600m bonanza this year

The forecast by Agronomics for 2021 would mean that investment in the sector has more than doubled year-on-year.

Cultivated meat companies are set to more than double the amount they raised year-on-year in 2021 and will top the $600m (£434m) mark, according to a forecast by a leading alternative protein investment firm.

In the first half of 2021, funds raised by cultured meat companies have already eclipsed the amount of capital raised in the previous five years combined, with $434m (£314m) raised to date.

Now, Agronomics has forecast that more than $600m (£434m) will be raised this year in total, indicating the rude health of the sector despite the pandemic and many countries being in lockdown during 2021.

The forecast by Agronomics, which can be read here, follows the news that US venture capital firm Big Idea Ventures topped the $50m (£36m) target of its New Protein Fund, which was also raised primarily through Covid.

Agronomics pointed to further Series B and Series C stage funding to be carried out later this year, helping the total to eclipse the $600m (£434m) mark.

Funding hitherto in 2021 has included a $170m (£122m) funding round from Eat Just's subsidiary GOOD Meat.

The investor appetite for the sector is indicated by the fact that the 2021 forecast funding amount is more than double the $270m (£195m) that was raised in 2020, which included financings from Upside Foods, Mosa Meat and BlueNalu.

The forecast was disclosed in Agronomics' half-year report, which also details Agronomics’ own £65m fundraise in May this year.

Agronomics said its own funding will be used to “provide capital to companies currently in the Agronomics portfolio, as well as to fund new opportunities”.

Agronomics currently has 16 companies within its portfolio, 12 of which are purplay cellular agriculture firms.

In the report, Agronomics, whose senior executives include investor and entrepreneur Jim Mellon, gave an update on the recent financing of some of the  firms in its portfolio, which include the Dutch cultured meat tech firm Meatable and the US cellular aquaculture firm BlueNalu.