Meatable is a company that makes 100% guilt-free meat. With one cell, Meatable is transforming the meat industry’s impact on climate change and animal welfare. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Meatable co-founder and CTO Daan Luining to learn more about the company.
Daan Luining’s Background
What is Daan Luining’s background? Luining said:
“I’m proud to be one of the pioneers of our industry as I worked on the first cultivated hamburger project back in 2013. After that incredible experience, I further expanded my knowledge in the field while working at New Harvest, an NGO that funds academic research in cultivated meat.”
“Then I went on to co-found Meatable in 2018 with Krijn de Nood to help bring cultivated meat to the market. As the CTO, I oversee all of Meatable’s technological initiatives, which are critical to the foundation of our success as an innovative food technology company.”
Formation Of Meatable
How did the idea for the company come together? Luining shared:
“We started Meatable with a clear mission – to satisfy the world’s appetite for meat without harming people, animals or the planet. Fast forward to today, we’re trailblazing a new frontier in food, one that opens up a way for us all to enjoy real meat that’s harm-free and totally delicious.”
“In short: we make cultivated meat – real meat, made from just one sample of cells from an animal.”
“In our early days, we began operating on the campus of Delft University of Technology, which is where we proved our technology’s ability to effectively grow real meat using pluripotent stem cells from animals in a laboratory. We then had the opportunity to showcase our technology and our vision at the widely renowned CES conference in Las Vegas right before the COVID 19 pandemic happened.”
“Since then, it’s been a wild and exciting ride as we have significantly improved our technology, began the process of introducing our products in Singapore, have organized tastings in both Singapore and the Netherlands, and have our eyes set on expanding into the U.S. market.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Luining explained:
“Currently, our core product is a cultivated hybrid pork product. To make this tasty meat, Meatable’s full process from cell to sausage currently only takes 4 days, and as I mentioned, we only have to take a single sample of cells from an animal just once.”
“The Meatable process centers around the use of pluripotent stem cells (PSC) with our patented, proprietary opti-ox technology, which enables those cells to multiply and differentiate into mature muscle and fat cells – the ingredients for real meat in a fast and cost-efficient process.”
“Through this process, Meatable creates high-quality, fully differentiated cultivated meat with the right level of fiber formation, protein, fat accumulation, and key meat flavors.”
“As mentioned, we are methodically taking a hybrid approach that combines our cultivated meat with plant-based ingredients. This delivers a truly superior flavor and taste experience over plant-based alternatives to satisfy the quality that meat-eating consumers recognize and expect.”
“Our hybrid approach is strategic because although our technology is capable of producing fully cultivated meat products, it greatly enhances our speed and scale of production – this is critical to mainstream adoption.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Luining and the team faced in building the company? Luining acknowledged:
“We are fully aware of the recent market turbulence our industry has faced, but believe this offers immense opportunity for our technology and process given our clear competitive differentiators. The ability to harness PSCs, which can multiply indefinitely and convert into any kind of cell, enables us to stand out. This, combined with our proprietary opti-ox™ technology that rapidly converts PSCs into the desired muscle and fat cells, is what really gives us our competitive edge.”
“Critics of the industry have said cultivated meat technology can’t scale until it’s affordable and cheaper than farm raised meat. However, we are optimistic that Meatable will reach price parity with farmed meat in the next few years. We believe that our price point at launch can match those for high-end organic meats and will ultimately, in the long run, match mass market pricing.”
“Today, Meatable can produce meat from cells in 4 days. We cut our production time in half in comparison to only 1 year ago. This enables us to use fewer bioreactors, other materials and labor, which will ultimately allow us to price our meat at a much more affordable level.”
Evolution Of Meatable’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Luining noted:
“Meatable is continuously focused on improvements and advancement, and our technology has improved considerably since our launch in 2018. Most notably, as speed is a core focus for us, we have established Meatable as the company with the fastest technology in the industry.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Luining cited:
“In addition to achieving our record-breaking time for cell to sausage production, we‘ve hit some significant milestones recently that are key to our accelerated growth. In 2023, we went through a successful fundraising campaign, raising more capital than any other company in our category that year. We have already held four successful tastings in Singapore with leading restaurants and other global industry participants. Then, in early 2024, we became the first cultivated meat company to submit documentation for tastings in the Netherlands and then subsequently held our first EU tasting in our home country in April. We’re proud of these milestones, which are validating stepping stones to where we hope to be in the coming years.”
Funding
Upon asking Luining about the company’s funding, he revealed:
“Recently, in the current financial climate, it has been difficult for most pre-revenue companies to raise funds. As I mentioned, Meatable has continued to generate interest, and we are thrilled to have secured nearly $100 million ($95 million) in funding to-date. We have seen that investors continue to show interest in meat alternatives, but are taking a more methodical approach before commitment. Investors, particularly those who are committed to creating a sustainable supply chain, are focusing on business models like Meatable that can support large scale production.”
“Despite that, or perhaps because of it, we successfully raised a $35 million Series B in 2023, as one of the only companies in the space to complete a funding round. The round saw Invest-NL join as a new investor and drew renewed support from existing investors, including lead investor Agronomics, BlueYard, Bridford, MilkyWay, DSM Venturing and Taavet Hinrikus.”
“To-date, we have used funding to further scale our processes and accelerate our commercial launch. This has included further reducing production costs to reach cost competitiveness with farmed meat and scaling Meatable’s highly efficient technology to commercial volumes.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Luining assessed:
“Meatable expects that, if trends continue, our technology will save 130 million tons of carbon emissions, 300 billion liters of water and around 14 million animal lives by 2040.”
“In addition, the CE Delft found that cultivated meat could reduce the meat industry’s environmental footprint by up to 92% for greenhouse gas emissions and 95% for land use.”
“In terms of the specifics for the TAM we are after, the total worldwide meat industry is expected to grow from approx. $900 billion in 2021 to $1.3 trillion by 2027. The U.S. is expected to make up more than 15% of this market.”
“At the end of the day, Meatable is looking to offer an alternative to consumers, not replace the farm-raised meat market. The TAM is incredibly large and still expected to grow. Imagine, if cultivated meat would even capture 1% of that market…..the implications on global sustainability alone would be enormous.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Luining affirmed:
“First, we’ve taken a truly methodical approach to the production of cultivated meat. We’ve focused on ensuring that our technology is well tested and proven, rather than rush to market.”
“As mentioned earlier, our unique and methodical combination of using PSCs with our opti-ox technology gives us another clear competitive advantage. We are able to produce sausage from animal cells at an unprecedented speed. This leads to lower CAPEX and OPEX.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Luining concluded:
“Ultimately, our goal is to get our products on the plates of consumers all over the world through our future restaurant and retail partners. In the near-term, we are looking forward to having a successful market launch in Singapore in 2025. After Singapore, we aim to expand into the United States market”
“We look forward to capitalizing on this momentum!”
