Company Aiming To Develop Slaughter-Free Meat Raises $17 Million In Funding From Bill Gates, Others

A San Francisco based company Memphis Meats is culturing animal muscle cells to create slaughter-free meat and has raised as much as $17 million in funding.

The company harvests meat cells from animals and grows those in a lab for four to six weeks. The produce is called "clean meat" and does not require the slaughter of animals. Founded in 2015, the company had produced a meatball out of beef in February 2016 and chicken and duck in March 2017.

Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Twitch co-founder Kyle Vogt, and Kimbal Musk - brother of Elon Musk - are among several high profile investors who are backing the initiative. Tesla and SpaceX investor DFJ Venture Capital led the round of investment. Venture capital firms Atomico, New Crop Capital, SOSV, Fifty Years, KBW Ventures and Inevitable Ventures were also part of the round.

According to the Business Insider, the company hopes to have a viable lab-grown meat product available to consumers within the next five to six years. As the company is still in the research phase, there are no products available on the market yet. Market demand for lab-grown meet is also growing.

Very few investors have spoken about the idea and what they feel about its future. Carolina Brochado, partner at Atomico, says “there are few challenges larger and more global than the sustainability of the way we eat. Meat production today uses one third of Earth's fresh water and land surface and generates nearly one fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions. With a projected demand growing by nearly 70 per cent by 2050, we know we are in desperate need of a solution," she adds.