SciFi Foods closes its doors due to fundraising challenges

Business

SciFi Foods closes its doors due to fundraising challenges

Phoebe Fraser

12 June 2024

SciFi Foods closes its doors due to fundraising challenges

US-based hybrid cultivated meat start-up SciFi Foods has closed down, according to a report by AgFunderNews.

Founded as Artemys Foods in 2019 the start-up rebranded to SCiFi Foods in 2022. SciFi Foods opened a pilot plant in December last year growing beef cell lines in serum-free media in single cell suspension and in January it announced it had completed its first 500-litre bioreactor run of cell-based beef, in what it claimed was an industry first. It had also been in consultation with the FDA over its regulatory approval path in the US.

Speaking to AgFunderNews about the closure, CEO and co-founder Joshua March, said: “Given challenges in the fundraising market, we’ve appointed an advisory firm to run a sale process. Given the nature of the process, I can’t really say much more beyond this.”

The Cell Base has approached SciFi Foods for comment.

Hybrid

Cell-based meat

Food

Scientists grow cow muscle cells inside grains of rice

Scientists at Yonsei University in South Korea, have created a new type of food – a ‘beef-rice’ hybrid, made with beef muscle and fat cells.

Fork & Good hosts hybrid cell-based meet tasting in Switzerland

Fork & Good hosts hybrid cell-based meet tasting in Switzerland, which saw 40 people blind taste-test the hybrid products.

Vital Meat submits pre-market dossier to launch cell-based chicken in Singapore

Vital Meat has submitted a novel food pre-market regulatory dossier to the Singapore Food Agency to launch its cell-based chicken.

China’s CellX announces new fermentation programme

Shanghai-based cultivated meat start-up CellX has ventured into mycelium fermentation to expand its portfolio of alt-proteins.