Mission Barns Raises $24M Series A to Scale Up its Cultivated Fat Technology, Build Pilot Production Facility
New technology platform enables starting from a handful of pork, poultry, or beef cells and feeding them a plant-based feedstock inside a cultivator
Silicon Valley-based cellular agriculture company Mission Barns announced a $24M Series A to scale up its cultivated fat technology and build a pilot manufacturing plant in the Bay Area.
Mission Barns is focused on cultivating animal fat—without the animal. Its technology platform enables starting from a handful of pork, poultry, or beef cells and feeding them a plant-based feedstock inside a cultivator. Over a short period of time, the novel process creates real, pure animal fat that delivers the mouthfeel and flavor of meat without raising and slaughtering live animals, and uses a fraction of the carbon emissions, water, and land required by conventional animal agriculture.
The first commercial application of Mission Fat is in plant-based meat. Consumers repeatedly cite flavor, mouthfeel, and meatiness as the leading hurdles to regularly purchasing plant-based meat products.
The company has developed products incorporating Mission Fat in various categories both on its own and through collaboration with leading meat companies and plant protein partners. Applications include: bacon, breakfast patties, burgers, nuggets, dumplings, hot dogs, poultry sausages, meatballs, and more.
The Series A funding will be used to scale up and commercialize its Mission Fat technology. Global food and agriculture investors participated in the round, including Lever VC; Gullspang Re:Food (Oatly); Humboldt Fund (NotCo & Geltor); Green Monday Ventures (Beyond Meat & Perfect Day); Enfini Ventures (Impossible Foods & Memphis Meats); and a European meat company. Other investors in the round included Blue Ledge Capital; Prithvi Ventures; and Joyance Partners.
A number of Seed investors increased their stake in the company including Global Founders Capital (Facebook & LinkedIn); Point Nine Capital (Delivery Hero); Better Ventures; and Cantos Ventures.
Mission Barns’ team includes senior biotechnology experts from Genentech & Sigma-Aldrich; culinary leaders from Michelin-starred The French Laundry & Thomas Keller Restaurant Group; and veterans from other cellular agriculture companies including JUST & Memphis Meats.
The company has been growing quickly and is actively looking for passionate team members who want to be on the forefront of revolutionizing the global food system.
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