Would you eat lab-grown meat? Would you give the identical reply if somebody requested you to make use of a magnificence product that had lab-grown collagen as an ingredient?
Mobile agriculture — the method of rising an agriculture product from cell cultures — has been gaining momentum over the previous few years. Earlier this yr, the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration authorized Upside Meals’ and Good Meat’s plan to promote their lab-grown hen by means of eating places. Each corporations, along with quite a few different mobile agriculture startups, have raised oodles of enterprise {dollars}.
The rise of mobile agriculture hasn’t been linear and easygoing, after all, and never everyone seems to be into the craze. Italy, for one, is working to ban the stuff outright, and numerous polls have produced combined outcomes concerning whether or not of us would truly eat lab-grown meat.
However not everyone seems to be utilizing the tech to create yet one more meat different.
Stephanie Michelsen first realized the potential of mobile agriculture when she was working within the different protein sector. When she began excited about it additional, she realized there could also be an ignored alternative: Animal proteins like gelatin and collagen have use instances nicely past the realm of meals.
“I began excited about the hurdles for shifting into an animal-free future. If all animal tradition disappeared tomorrow, what can be lacking? What can we not have an answer for?” Michelsen mentioned. “For me, it was the byproducts which might be solely present in these animals. That’s how I landed on collagen.”
Cultivated collagen is the premise for her startup Jellatech, which was based in 2020 and lately landed a $3.5 million seed spherical led by byFounders VC, with participation from Milano Funding Companions and Joyful VC, amongst others.
Jellatech stands out within the more and more crowded mobile agriculture house as a result of it’s tapping into a bigger alternative than a few of its seafood and meat-focused counterparts.
