'World’s first' marbled cultivated pork loin announced by Big Idea Ventures

Big Idea Ventures has announced that Novel Farms Inc, a BIV portfolio company and Berkeley-based food technology startup, has developed the 'world’s first' marbled cultivated pork loin.

Cultivated meat has the potential to relieve the strain in our food system by providing animal protein while offering human health, environmental and animal welfare benefits. While many cultivated meat companies have made tremendous technological progress, producing conventional meat cuts through cell culturing remains a significant challenge.

Novel Farms solves the structuring problem by producing low-cost, edible, and highly customizable scaffolds using a proprietary microbial fermentation approach. Their tissue development platform gives them an important and unique advantage against competitors by not only providing them with the capability to structure meat from any animal species but also doing it in a very cost-effective way.

Big Idea Ventures saw the promise in this technology and were among the first investors that helped Novel Farms raise an additional US$1.4 million in a pre-seed round.

“We have worked with Novel Farms from their earliest days and are excited about what they have accomplished in the cultivated meat category," said Andrew D. Ive, Managing General Partner for Big Idea Ventures. "They have always tackled the scale-up challenges with fresh and novel approaches and Big Idea Ventures is glad to support them throughout their journey as true innovation leaders. Novel Farms are ones to watch, support and partner with as they bring sustainable protein to the world market."

By investing in Novel Farms, Big Idea Ventures has furthered its involvement in the cultivated meats industry with the mission of solving food security in an ethical and sustainable manner.