CellX Secures $6.5M to Launch China’s First Cultivated Meat Pilot Facility & Tasting Space

Chen, director of R&D at CellX, told reporters: “We have successfully developed 10+ cell lines from various species, adapted 5+ of them into suspension culturing, and the leading cell line has now entered pilot stage. Besides, we have as well developed multiple serum-free media and improved the yield notably, enabling us to drastically reduce the production cost.

We are currently working on scaling up to 2,000L.” To date (including this round), the firm has pulled in $20 million. Its flagship product, a cultivated chicken breast, passed to the finals of the XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion (FTNB) competition last month.

In September 2021, the biotech disclosed dishes made with cultivated pork grown with cells from China’s native black pig. And in April 2022, CellX partnered with Bluu Seafood to “make cellular agriculture a reality” and advance regulatory approval in Germany and China.

Image courtesy of CellX China’s advantage According to Yang, China alone consumes over 100 million tons of meat annually, one-quarter of global meat consumption. Therefore, cultivated meat production must be cost-effective and produced in large volumes to impact the global food supply chain. “Unfortunately, no company in our space has fully cracked the puzzle of production at low cost and scale, yet,” he added. But CellX has opportunities to succeed, he explained.

China’s rapidly expanding biopharmaceutical sector has created a robust infrastructure, providing discounted equipment. Experienced bioprocess engineers, allowing businesses to produce cultivated meat at a lower quotation. Despite the recent decoupling trend between China and the West, Yang still believes in the globalization of cell ag: “At the end of the day, carbon. Sustainability are global issues that humanity faces together.

It’s one of the few areas where there is common understanding.”