Ever After Foods Raises $10M for “Unmatched” Cost-Effective Bioreactor Platform for Cultivated Meat Producers – vegconomist

Israel’s Pluri (Nasdaq: PLUR) (TASE: PLUR) announces that its cultivated meat subsidiary Ever After Foods, formerly Plurinuva, has secured $10 million in a funding round from US and EU strategic investors, including a second investment from Israel’s Tnuva Group and Pluri itself.

With the new capital, Ever After Foods aims to propel its technology platform to become a technology enabler for cultivated meat producers. The company claims it has developed a cutting-edge bioreactor platform to produce cultivated foods with “unmatched” cost-efficient scalability.

Eyal Rosenthal, CEO of Ever After Foods, shared, “Ever After Foods’ unique and innovative production platform empowered the change in our business model. The shift to a technology enabler will allow us to serve more players in the value chain.

“Securing funding from new global partners is a testament to our team’s tireless dedication to solving the primary production barriers for the next step toward a more sustainable meat industry.”

90 % cost reduction

Ever After Foods, backed by the food giant Tnuva, leverages Pluri’s technology and intellectual property (licensing rights) to develop, manufacture, and commercialize cultivated meat. With the new investment in its subsidiary, Pluri has extended the license to include seafood.

President and CEO Yaky Yanay comments, “In just two years, our subsidiary has transformed the cultivated-meat sector, highlighting Pluri’s innovative 3D cell expansion technology. Pluri is dedicated to the success of Ever After Foods, and this milestone reflects our ongoing commitment to innovation and excellence.”

Ever After Foods launched a pilot bioreactor platform last year, capable of producing 10 kg of cultivated meat mass in 35 L vessels. These bioreactors are said to yield up to six times more protein and 700 times more lipids from each cell compared to other cultivated meat technology platforms. According to the company, this efficiency enables manufacturers to reduce production costs by over 90% while significantly increasing productivity.

Now, after a year of working on a B2B model, the company reports that it has made swift progress, demonstrating the platform’s capabilities to cultivate muscle and fat tissues from different animal cells to provide products with the taste, feel, and texture of animal-derived meat.

Haim Gavrieli, Tnuva’s Chairman of the Board, commented, “The joint investment by global multinational companies, along with Tnuva and Pluri, in Ever After Foods’ unique technology platform, its team, and vision underscores the critical role of collaboration in ensuring a sustainable and secure global food system.

“The way the world produces and consumes meat will significantly change over the next decade, bringing many opportunities for cultivated meat players. As the leading alternative protein group in Israel, Tnuva recognizes the immense importance of continued investment in Israeli foodtech in general, and particularly in the field of cultivated meat.”