Big Idea Ventures announces Investment in Multus Biotechnology
New York, January 18 2023
Big Idea Ventures, the global leader in early-stage alternative protein and food technology is pleased to announce its investment in Multus Biotechnology. The UK-based start-up creating key ingredients for the affordable scale-up of cellular agriculture, raised a £7.9M (USD$9.5M) to build a world-first growth media facility and enable affordable cultivated meat. The funding is led by Sao Paulo-based venture capital Mandi Ventures with participation from Big Idea Ventures, SOSV, SynBioVen, and Asahi Kasei.
“We believe Multus’ technology has a solution to help unlock the cultivated meat opportunity to deliver a more sustainable and climate friendly food system,” said Andrew D. Ive, Founder and General Managing Partner at Big Idea Ventures. “Big Idea Ventures is happy to support and bring them together with our ecosystem of global partners and investors.”
An equity-free grant of £2.15M (USD$2.5M) from Innovate UK through the EIC Accelerator also makes up the Series A round. With a success rate of less than 4%, the EIC Accelerator is the most competitive start-up grant in Europe.
This funding will allow Multus to build a world-first production plant in the UK to accelerate the cultivated meat industry towards price parity with affordable food-safe growth media at commercial scale. It will also accelerate product development in advanced growth media formulations and food-grade raw materials.
Commenting on the funding round, Multus CEO Cai Linton said, “We are excited to use this funding to drive innovation in novel ingredient discovery, intelligent formulation design and food safe growth media production for the affordable scale-up of the cellular agriculture industry.” “We are confident that our unique approach to growth media will play a key role in making cultivated meat a sustainable and affordable choice for all.”
About Multus Biotechnology Limited: Multus creates the key ingredients for the affordable scale-up of cellular agriculture. Multus’ growth media ingredients and formulations are the building blocks of cellular agriculture and enable the affordable at-scale production of real animal products, including meat, dairy, leather, and more using cells instead of animals. Since raising USD$2.2M in 2021, Multus has successfully launched its first product Proliferum® M, an all-in-one solution to eliminate the use of fetal bovine serum (FBS) in cell culture. Proliferum® M is demonstrated to grow muscle, fat, and connective tissue cells from mammals, birds, and seafood. Multus is also proud to have recently achieved ISO22000 certification for food-safe manufacturing of growth media formulations and ingredients, a significant milestone on the company’s journey to producing food-safe growth media.
About Big Idea Ventures: Big Idea Ventures is the world’s most active investor in FoodTech investing in the best food technology and agritech companies globally. The company has contributed to the development of the growing alternative protein industry since its inception and has become a global leader in food innovation. BIV is backed by a strong network of strategic partners including AAK, Avril, Bühler, Givaudan, Temasek Holdings, and Tyson Foods, and is partnering with governments around the world working on food security and new food ecosystems. The firm has offices in New York, Paris and Singapore and has invested in more than 100 companies across 22 countries. For more information, visit bigideaventures.com
Media contact: olivia.chavassieu@bigideaventures.com