SCiFi Foods的4000万美元人工培养牛肉汉堡赌注以2024年6月停业告终

做的是什么生意

San Leandro, California food-tech startup growing cultivated beef cells in serum-free suspension and blending them into hybrid burgers with plant-based ingredients.

启动资金：Approximately $40M raised between 2019 and 2024

起因

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).

经过

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).

结果

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).

可借鉴之处

如果资金大门先关闭，降低成本1000倍也救不了你：技术里程碑必须在市场的融资窗口期内实现，否则公司会在产品上市前就死掉。