In Los Angeles, Omeat has exited stealth mode and officially joined the race to deliver cultivated meat. The company’s process uses regenerative factors extracted from healthy, happy cows to create growth media, which is a primary cost driver and technological hurdle for cultivated meat production.
The company sources its growth media “starter” from a herd of cows that graze freely on its carbon-negative and California farm. Omeat even uses positive reinforcement to coax cows into placidly allowing collection. Just one weekly plasma donation from a single cow can produce the equivalent of multiple cows’ worth of meat annually.
“The conventional approach to meat production comes with major adverse effects on the environment, public health, and animal welfare,” Ali Khademhosseini, Ph.D., Omeat founder and CEO and one of the top tissue engineers in the world. “We saw an opportunity to leverage our expertise to discover a scalable way to grow cultivated meat.”
Omeat raised $40 million in Series A funding in 2022 and is currently engaging with regulatory authorities.