Agronomics Follow-on Investment in CellX

RNS Number : 5145K

Agronomics Limited

06 May 2022

 

6th May 2022

Agronomics Limited

("Agronomics" or the "Company")

Agronomics Follow-on Investment in CellX

Agronomics (AIM:ANIC), the leading listed company focused on the field of cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce it has invested a further US$ 2 million into Chinese cultivated meat company CellX Limited ("CellX"), subscribing for 857,363 preferred shares (the "Subscription"). CellX is a leading cultivated meat company based in Shanghai. Agronomics will have a 5.14% equity ownership in CellX, on a fully diluted basis. The Subscription will be made using cash from the Company's own resources.

Agronomics first invested in CellX in December 2020, with a US$ 50,000 investment in the form of a SAFE ("Simple Agreement for Future Equity"). This SAFE converted to 230,681 preferred shares as stated in the 28th May 2021 announcement . Subject to audit, in aggregate, Agronomics will now carry the combined position in its accounts at a book value of US$ 2,538,117, including an unrealised gain on cost of US$ 488,117, representing an internal rate of return of 458% and a multiple on invested capital  of 10.76 of the initial US$ 50,000 investment. The CellX position in the Agronomics portfolio will represent approximately 1.40% of last reported Net Asset Value.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014, as it forms part of UK Domestic Law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

About CellX

CellX is a leading cellular agriculture start-up located in Shanghai, the biotech and innovation hub in China. CellX started with domestic Chinese pig breed and has quickly expanded to beef and poultry. With a team of thirty, CellX is working to bring cultivated meat products to consumers in China and around the world. The company is co-founded by two impact entrepreneurs, Ziliang Yang and Ran Liu, and two top scientists, Dr Ning Xiang and Dr Binlu Huang. The team has made significant progress since their founding in 2020, and they have now moved into the next phase of development - scaling up and reducing cost. CellX is collaborating with top universities and leading companies in China and around the world to advance the research and development of cultivated meat, and the company is accelerating market launch and cultivated meat approval as a key player in the APAC region. More information at  www.cellx.cn

About Agronomics

Agronomics is a leading listed alternative proteins company with a focus on cellular agriculture and cultivated meat. The Company has established a portfolio of 21 companies at the Pre-Seed to Series C stage in this rapidly advancing sector. It seeks to secure minority stakes in companies owning technologies with defensible intellectual property that offer new ways of producing food and materials with a focus on products historically derived from animals. These technologies are driving a major disruption in agriculture, offering solutions to improve sustainability, as well as addressing human health, animal welfare and environmental damage. This disruption will decouple supply chains from the environment and animals, as well as being fundamental to feeding the world's expanding population. A full list of Agronomics' portfolio companies is available at  https://agronomics.im/ .

About Cellular Agriculture

Cellular Agriculture is the production of agriculture products directly from cells, as opposed to raising an animal for slaughter, or growing crops. This encompasses cell culture to produce cultivated meat and materials, and fermentation processes that harness a combination of molecular biology, synthetic biology, tissue engineering and biotechnology to massively simplify production methods in a sustainable manner.

Over the coming decades, the source of the world's food supply traditionally derived from conventional agriculture is going to change dramatically. We have already witnessed the first wave of this shift with the consumer adoption of plant-based alternative proteins but today, we are on the cusp of an even bigger wave of change. This is being facilitated by advances in cellular agriculture. This change is necessary, given scientists claims that if we maintain existing animal protein consumption patterns, then we will not meet the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to 1.5 ℃

AT Kearney, a global consultancy firm, projects that cultivated meat's market share will reach 35% by 2040. This combined with the Good Food Institute's estimate that a US $1.8 trillion investment will be required in order to produce just 10% of the world's protein using this technology, means that we are on the cusp of a multi-decade flow of capital to build out manufacturing facilities. Funding in the field of cellular agriculture is accelerating, however still less than US$ 2 billion has been invested worldwide since the industry's inception in 2016.

 
For further information please contact:

Agronomics Limited	Beaumont Cornish Limited	Cenkos Securities Plc	Peterhouse Capital Limited	TB Cardew
The Company	Nomad	Joint Broker	Joint Broker	Public Relations
Richard Reed Denham Eke	Roland Cornish James Biddle	Giles Balleny Michael Johnson	Lucy Williams Charles Goodfellow	Ed Orlebar Charlotte Anderson
[phone] [e-mail]	[phone]	[phone]	[phone]	[phone] [phone] [e-mail]

 

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