The Better Meat Co. Raises $31M

Mycelium-based alternative protein producer The Better Meat Co. (BMC), announced it has closed an oversubscribed $31 million round of Series A funding co-led by Future Ventures and Resilience Reserve with participation from Hickman’s Family Farms’ CEO Glenn Hickman, Epic Ventures, Sigma Ventures, and other existing and new investors.

The new cash will enable the Sacramento, Calif.-based company to scale its patented mycoprotein fermentation process to commercial levels that will also allow it to compete with U.S. commodity ground beef. The company said it plans to sell its ingredient at prices lower than the animal-based commodity within 2026.

Those projections were made possible by achieving what is known as “continuous fermentation,” which the company claims is the “holy grail in our sector” and enabled it to cut production costs by more than 30%.

While others in the space have struggled to build consumer-facing brands around their alternative protein inputs, BMC continues to take an industry-centric approach, reemphasizing its alignment with U.S. meat companies alongside today’s funding announcement. According to the company, it has five signed letters of intent for future orders “from some of the biggest meat companies on the planet.”

BMC also claims its Rhiza input is the only mycoprotein considered “safe and suitable” for inclusion in animal meat, per the U.S. Department of Agriculture; the company has also secured regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The company has also recently secured a handful of new patents and international regulatory approvals.

“We’ve invented and patented our tech, received regulatory approval, scaled to a demonstration plant, and proven demand exists for Rhiza mycoprotein. It’s now time to fully commercialize and introduce our new crop that will help the protein industry cut costs and improve nutritionals, all with a much lighter footprint,” said CEO Paul Shapiro, in a press release. “I’m so proud of our team that’s led us to this critical milestone.”

The new capital will scale production capacity at its West Sacramento, Calif., facility approximately ten-fold, the company claims; currently, BMC operates a 9,000-liter demonstration-scale fermentation facility at that site. Glenn Hickman of Hickman’s Family Farms and Future Ventures co-founder Steve Jurvetson will also join the company’s board of directors.

“The world needs better ways to make protein, and The Better Meat Co. has invented one of the most efficient – and delicious – ways to do it,” Jurvetson said in the press release.

The news comes at a tumultuous time for the alternative protein sector. Earlier this year, BMC competitor Meati, which it was once wrapped into a legal battle with over allegedly stolen trade secrets, lost its primary source of funding after failing to meet a revenue target and was on the verge of shuttering before it sold for $4 million in May; the company had raised nearly $450 million in total funding.

Elsewhere, rumors have swirled about the future of Beyond (f.k.a. Beyond Meat) after the company reported yet another quarter of sales declines, laid off 6% of its workforce and onboarded John Boken, managing director in the Turnaround and Restructuring Services practice at AlixPartners, to lead its transformation efforts.

All the while, blended meat products, once seen as lacking a target audience and product-market fit in comparison to pure plant-based proteins, have gained momentum in foodservice under the term “balanced protein.”