Novameat team | Image credit: LinkedIn (Novameat)
Barcelona-based Novameat, a company that develops proprietary technology solutions to create plant-based meat alternatives, announced that it has raised $6M (approx €5.27M) in its pre-Series A round of funding.
The investment was led by Luxembourg-based private equity and venture capital firm Praesidium, and joined by Unovis Asset Management, Rubio Impact Ventures, Volta Circle, Ataraxia, and VU Venture Partners.
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“Plant-based meat, reinvented”
Founded in 2018 by Giuseppe Scionti, the idea of Novameat was born and developed at CREB UPC. The company’s proprietary technologies claim to produce plant-based meat substitutes with the same texture, appearance, taste, and nutritional properties of various animal meat products, including beef steaks.
The company’s 3D printed steak consists of pea protein, beetroot juice, and other plant-based ingredients. In January, 2022, the startup had announced that it has created the world’s first meat substitute composed of highly temperature-sensitive ingredients, “sourced from every one of the 5 kingdoms of living things”.
The Spanish think tank KM ZERO Food Innovation Hub also named Giuseppe Scionti among the 50 people leading the future of food in its report “Fooduristic 2022”, released in February, 2022.
In the past years, Novameat has been designing whole-cuts that could replicate beef, pork and chicken. So far, the company has at least two whole-cuts formats for each meat alternative, among which are tenderloins, steaks, and fillets.
Novameat’s plant-based products will hit the market in 2022, targeting Spanish steak-houses, and vegan, vegetarian and traditional restaurants. Scionti expects Novameat’s products to be in retail outlets in 2023, through partnerships with established food and beverage companies.
Capital utilisation
Novameat claims that the new funds will help accelerate its products, primarily steaks and tenderloins, to enter the market. The company mentions in a statement that the current funds will add up to the grant it is receiving from the European Innovation Council Accelerator, which is aimed to foster the in-house technology and scalability of production.
The company claims its patented technology can scale-up production of its plant-based whole cuts at more than 500Kg/h with industrial equipment.
Novameat’s founder Giuseppe Scionti says, “The current production speed is about 15 times faster than the typical high-moisture extrusion technology widely used in the alternative proteins sector.”
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