The archive · Bio & Materials · Financial decision · 2019–2024
SCiFi Foods' $40M cultivated-beef burger bet ends in a June 2024 shutdown
Cultivated-meat startup SCiFi cut burger cost 1,000x but couldn't raise a Series B; wound down June 2024.
SCiFi Foods (Artemys Foods)
What the business is
San Leandro, California food-tech startup growing cultivated beef cells in serum-free suspension and blending them into hybrid burgers with plant-based ingredients.
Starting capital：Approximately $40M raised between 2019 and 2024
How it started
Founded in 2019 as Artemys Foods in San Leandro, California and rebranded SCiFi Foods in 2022, the startup set out to make a hybrid burger combining cultivated beef with plant-based ingredients to reach price parity with conventional beef. Co-founders Joshua March and Kasia Gora pursued the blended strategy because pure cultivated meat was not yet technically or commercially viable (vegconomist).
What happened
The team reported a 1,000x cost reduction by growing edible beef cell lines in single-cell suspension in standard large bioreactors — serum-free, with 24-hour doubling and titers of 10 g/L in fed-batch — and said per-burger cost fell from $20,000 to under $15 with a route to parity within a few years (vegconomist; Meatingplace). It opened a pilot facility in December 2023 and completed its first 500L bioreactor run of cultivated beef in January 2024 (Meatingplace). CEO Joshua March said a tight funding environment and a hostile US political climate made it 'effectively impossible' to raise the tens of millions needed even for a small commercial launch (Meatingplace).
How it ended up
Ceased operations in June 2024, handed its IP and assets to an advisory firm for sale, and entered a voluntary Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors. In the founders' words: 'SCiFi Foods ran out of time' (vegconomist; Meatingplace).
Background
SCiFi Foods was a San Leandro, California food-tech startup founded in 2019 as Artemys Foods and rebranded in 2022. It set out to build a hybrid burger combining cultivated beef with plant-based ingredients to reach price parity with conventional beef, using CRISPR and single-cell suspension growth to drive costs down.
The company reported a 1,000x reduction in cultivated beef production cost — from ~$20,000 per burger to under $15 — by growing edible beef cell lines serum-free in standard large bioreactors, with a stated route to parity within a few years. It opened a pilot facility in December 2023 and completed its first 500L bioreactor run of cultivated beef in January 2024.
Despite the technical progress, SCiFi could not raise the capital to commercialize: CEO Joshua March said the funding environment and a hostile US political climate made it 'effectively impossible' to raise the tens of millions needed for a small commercial launch. The company ceased operations in June 2024, handed its IP and assets to an advisory firm for sale, and entered a voluntary Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors.
What has to be true
- Cultivated meat required hundreds of millions for full commercialization, and the market's funding window closed while SCiFi was still pre-revenue.
- A hybrid product was a deliberate cost compromise, but it still could not reach launch economics before runway ran out.
- Investor appetite for cultivated meat collapsed across the sector in 2023-2024, so a strong technology story no longer translated into capital.
- The 1,000x cost milestone landed months too late — the pilot facility and first 500L run came only about five months before the shutdown.
What can be applied
A 1,000x cost cut doesn't save you if the funding door closes first: technical milestones must land inside the market's fundraising window or the company dies before the product ships.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02 SCiFi Foods remains wound down and never brought its burger to market. Its suspension-adapted bovine cell lines and serum-free media were bought by The Good Food Institute, which announced in October 2025 they would be made publicly available — first to academic institutions, then commercial entities — stored at Tufts University's Center for Cellular Agriculture. GFI said the transfer saves researchers millions of dollars and years of development; co-founder Joshua March noted it took SCiFi four years and tens of millions of dollars to develop the cells.
Sources
- SCiFi Foods Ceases Operations Amid Funding Challenges
- SCiFi Foods writes final chapter: Cultivated meat firm closes its doors
- GFI Acquires SCiFi Foods' Cell Lines, Joins Tufts to Fast-Track Cultivated Meat Research
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