Even after $1.6B in VC money, the lab-grown meat industry is facing ‘massive’ issues | TechCrunch

Around 200 startups worldwide remain hopeful that growing meat from cells will one day be a major portion of our food supply.

In 2024 , the industry has hit such rocky times that multiple startups have been forced to scale back or close shop.

The industry is talking about eventually producing about 30 million pounds of finished product annually .

Over 100 billion pounds of traditional meat is produced annually today .

At the start of 2024 , there were around 200 cultured meat companies worldwide, according to PitchBook .

VCs are avoiding funding tech that has enormous upfront capital costs, does n’t currently produce much revenue, and may never prove to be viable businesses.

One possible solution is for startups to outsource cell manufacturing, leasing equipment and production rather than each of them spending $100 million to $200 million on their own facilities.

A study by Oklahoma State University found that 1 kilogram (equal to about 2 pounds ) of cell-cultured meat was estimated to cost $ 63 to produce.

MarineXcell , for instance, is developing a way to produce embryonic stem-like cells from crustacean cells.

The lack of regulatory policies is holding the industry back, too.