Ever After Foods is a company (spun out of the publicly traded company Pluri) that has developed a proprietary technology platform to produce cultivated meat with unmatched cost-efficient scalability. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Ever After Foods CEO Eyal Rosenthal to learn more.
Eyal Rosenthal’s Background
Eyal Rosenthal has been involved with foodtech and agritech for over two decades so he had a firsthand view of the massive transformation across every sector.
“Before Ever After Foods, I served as a venture partner and head of Israel operations at Finistere Ventures, a global venture fund active within ag and foodtech,” said Rosenthal. “I also co-founded and served as executive chairman of Fresh Start, a foodtech incubator backed by the Israeli government, and advised the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank Group member, on global food security issues. So, my current role as CEO of Ever After Foods is a natural progression, and I look forward to overseeing the company’s growth into a scaled company.”
Formation Of Ever After Foods
Rosenthal explained that the company was incorporated through an agreement between Pluri (Nasdaq: PLUR), a publicly traded pioneer of cell expansion technology specializing in the large-scale production of stem cells, and Tnuva, Israel’s largest food manufacturer and the leader in the local alternative protein market.
“Together, Pluri and Tnuva provided us with a huge head start. Our IP and patent underpinning spans cell lines, bioreactor design, and the harvesting process, despite us only being established last year. The continued support from Pluri and Tnuva gives us solid advantages across the value chain – from mature, proven technology to commercializing food products,” Rosenthal pointed out.
Challenges Faced
What are some of the challenges you face in building the company and were there any surprises? “I think the key challenge we face is that our industry requires a variety of unique and diverse disciplines spanning food technology, chemistry, biology, tissue engineering, bioreactor expertise, etc. As a result, recruiting high-quality personnel is an ongoing challenge,” Rosenthal acknowledged. “In addition, the regulatory processes are lengthy and unique to each country around the globe. So while we are excited by positive traction for cultivated meat players in the US, with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently approving the sale of cultivated or lab-grown meat to American consumers, and select countries abroad, there is a lot more work to do.”
Core Products
What are Ever After Foods’ core products and features and what makes it stand out? “Our proprietary bioreactor platform set a new standard for scalability in the cultivated meat sector by breaking previous production barriers,” Rosenthal noted. “Our current pilot system is highly productive, yielding 7 times more cultivated meat per run than those of our competitors that operate at the same scale. Moreover, by design, it protects animal cells from mechanical stresses, thus allowing streamlined scalability. Finally, our cultivated meat products are made of macro-tissues (basically, all of the essential components of conventional animal-derived meat … fat, muscle cells, extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins) that allow us to deliver uncompromised meat taste, feel, and texture.”
Evolution Of Ever After Foods’ Technology
How has the technology evolved and what have been some of Ever After Foods’ biggest milestones? “Our access to Pluri’s IP and expertise empowered us to quickly transform the pharma-grade processes to food-grade. On top of that, we’ve developed our own edible scaffolds to replace non-edible scaffolds once the cells have undergone isolation and expansion. This allows us to increase mass and achieve extremely high productivity,” Rosenthal pointed out. “Within one year of establishment, we developed a proprietary edible scaffold that continues to outperform all the leading edible scaffolds on the market. We are also already actively adding to our deep patent portfolio. We’re still at the beginning of our technology journey, but our rate of innovation has been incredible. It is thrilling to think about the potential of our innovation pipeline.”
Total Addressable Market
What is the total addressable market (TAM) size that you are pursuing? “Research groups expect that cultivated and plant-based meat, combined, will constitute the majority of meat sold by 2040. Moreover, they expect that greater growth will come from cultivated meat, which will form 35% of the market. This translates to $6 billion in potential market share for cultivated meat,” Rosenthal assessed.
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Ever After Foods from its competition? “We’ve developed a proprietary production system, starting with our working cell banks, and progressing to cell propagation. Our production system is different from all other companies in the space – allowing us to meet the high scale needed to reach cost efficiencies,” Rosenthal pointed out. “From a 1,400-liter bioreactor, we can produce over 400 kg of cultivated meat. To produce the same amount, our competitors would need to scale their processes to enormous bioreactors of over 10,000 liters – that type of infrastructure simply is not feasible for use with animal cells and cannot achieve cost parity.”
Evolution Of The Alternative Protein Market
How do you see the alternative protein market evolving over the next 5 years and where does Ever After Foods fit in? “The alternative protein market has tremendous potential to address some of the major challenges facing the food system – from the environmental impact of animal agriculture to public health concerns and food insecurity. Driven by a combination of consumer demand for more sustainable food systems, advances in food science and technology, and supportive government policies, the market is poised for significant growth as more opportunities emerge to meet the changing needs of consumers and the planet,” Rosenthal concluded. “While I expect there will likely be some consolidation among players in the space as the market continues to mature, Ever After Foods is well positioned to serve as a lynchpin for the industry by providing a unique system for efficiently growing cultivated meat at scale. Our goal is to make cultivated meat become a widely available, affordable, nutritious staple food for all.”
