Taavet Hinrikus invested in Dutch food tech Meatable

Co-founder of money transfer service Wise Taavet Hinrikus invested in a Dutch producer of synthetic cow and pork Meatable. The company raised $35M from London-based VC Agronomics (the lead investor), previous backers German VC BlueYard Capital, UK investment firm Bridford, MilkyWay, and Cambridge-based DSM Venturing. In addition, a new investor - a Dutch impact fund Invest-NL, which contributed $17M.

Founded by Krijn de Nood and Daan Luining in the Netherlands in 2018, Meatable makes cultivated pork and cow. It takes a sample of cells from an animal and replicates the natural growth process of the cells using patented opti-ox technology combined with pluripotent stem cells. With the help of this technology, Meatable produces muscle and fat cells in eight days, 30 times faster than rearing a pig for pork on the farm. Also, the company needs a few weeks to produce synthetic cow meat compared to three years, necessary to develop enough meat on the farm.

The startup will use the investment to scale the company’s processes and accelerate commercial launch. It plans to bring down production time and become cost competitive with traditional meat. Meatable has already held its first external tasting events in Singapore, started production of its products on the ground with Singaporean manufacturer of cultivated meat Esco Aster and has begun co-development of its product range with Singaporean plant-based butcher Love Handle.   

According to the company, the meat products, including sausages and pork dumplings, will be available in some restaurants and retailers in Singapore in 2024. The company is also establishing a presence in the United States.

Taavet Hinrikus is a co-founder and chairman of money transfer service Wise and a venture investment firm Plural, which runs €250M early-stage venture fund. Until 2008, he was Skype’s director of strategy. Taavet Hinrikus is an angel investor who backed Estonian mobility unicorn Bolt,  Estonian online identity verification unicorn Veriff, London-based commercial motor insurance provider Zego, and many others. Taavet is one of eight entrepreneurs, who started the Estonian Jõhvi Coding School.