Agronomics co-leads SuperMeat's Series A Financing
8th March 2022
("Agronomics" or the "Company")
Agronomics co-leads SuperMeat's Series A Financing
Agronomics, the leading listed company focused on the field of cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce it has co-led the Series A Financing for portfolio company SuperMeat The Essence of Meat Ltd ("SuperMeat") with a US$ 10 million investment, subscribing for 188,158 Series A Preferred Shares. SuperMeat is a leading cultivated chicken meat company based in Israel. The funding round was co-led alongside New Agrarian Company Limited ("New Agrarian"). Following the close of the funding round, Agronomics will have the right to appoint a board member to SuperMeat and will have a 7.77% equity interest. The investment will be made using cash from the Company's own resources.
Agronomics first invested in SuperMeat in December 2020, with a US$ 2 million investment in the form of a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity). This SAFE will convert to 119,551 Series A Preferred Shares, representing a Multiple on Investable Capital ("MOIC") of 2.97. In February 2022, Agronomics purchased an additional 50,774 Preferred Seed Shares in SuperMeat via a secondary transaction from an existing shareholder for total transaction cost of US$ 500,124 which will, subject to audit, represent a MOIC of 5.04.
Agronomics will now carry the aggregate position in its accounts at a book value of US$ 19.35 million, subject to audit, including an unrealised gain on cost of US$ 6.95 million, representing an internal rate of return of 207%. The SuperMeat position in the Agronomics portfolio will represent approximately 10% of Net Asset Value.
SuperMeat is a leading cultivated meat player, with their bioprocess capable of producing cell densities of 150 million cells/ml, as well as displaying strong product demonstration. In a taste test that occurred in January 2022, SuperMeat's unseasoned chicken was indistinguishable to conventional chicken as judged by a panel of culinary experts . SuperMeat currently allows individuals to visit their restaurant experience 'The Chicken' to try their cultivated chicken products. At present, SuperMeat is working to obtain regulatory approval in the US and Singapore for its chicken products to be made available for inclusion in consumer products. The funding raised by SuperMeat in this Series A financing will be used to establish SuperMeat's first facility, as the company seeks to commercialise its chicken product in the next 24 months.
Since this Acquisition is considered a Substantial Transaction under AIM Rule 12, this announcement requires certain disclosures under Schedule Four. SuperMeat is an early-stage company with no revenues with operating costs of approximately US$ 260k per month, and total assets as at 31 December 2020 of approximately US$ 3.3 million with no material liabilities.
Jim Mellon, co-founder and executive director of Agronomics commented:-
" Agronomics is pleased to provide further support to SuperMeat, one of the most established companies in this rapidly advancing field. The technical progress they have made since our first investment has been exceptional with some technical production metrics at the upper end of what the Agronomics team has observed in the entire field. This recently culminated in a landmark blind tasting event which demonstrated SuperMeat's chicken to be indiscernible from conventional chicken by culinary experts."
Ido Savir, co-founder and CEO of SuperMeat, added:-
"We are excited to take further steps towards commercialization with the leadership and support of Agronomics. Agronomics, which currently holds the largest portfolio of cellular agriculture companies, provides a strong and professional support as well as a global network of partners and connections invaluable for our path to market. We are honoured to receive their continued support.
New Agrarian, the new unquoted entity formed to accept funds from private equity investors seeking exposure to the field of cellular agriculture also participated in the financing for SuperMeat on the same terms as Agronomics with a US $5 million investment and, following the investment, holds an aggregate position, on a fully diluted basis, of 3.14%.
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.
SuperMeat, headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, is a food-tech company working to supply the world with high-quality meat grown directly from animal cells. Their products offer a delicious meat experience and a high quality nutritional profile, while being manufactured in a sustainable, slaughter-free way.
SuperMeat's proprietary cultivated meat platform allows food companies to be at the forefront of the emerging cultivated meat industry and manufacture a wide range of products containing cultivated meat inside. SuperMeat is the first B2B company to address the entire category of poultry meat from fat to muscle, providing a complete solution to cultivated meat production.
The company has been showcasing the versatility of its meat platform at various events at its pilot production plant, The Chicken , the world's first farm-to-fork facility for local meat production.
For more information about SuperMeat, visit Supermeat.com .
Agronomics is a leading listed alternative proteins company with a focus on cellular agriculture and cultivated meat. The Company has established a portfolio of 20 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:
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Agronomics Limited |
Beaumont Cornish Limited |
Cenkos Securities Plc |
Peterhouse Capital Limited |
TB Cardew |
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The Company |
Nomad |
Joint Broker |
Joint Broker |
Public Relations |
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Richard Reed Denham Eke |
Roland Cornish James Biddle |
Giles Balleny Michael Johnson |
Lucy Williams Charles Goodfellow |
Ed Orlebar Joe McGregor |
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+44 (0) 1624 639396 |
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