Overview
SCiFi Foods developed a burger combining cultivated beef cells with plant proteins. The California company aimed to make a smaller amount of cultivated meat provide flavor while reducing the cost of a fully cultivated product. It opened a pilot facility but closed in June 2024 before reaching the market. The founders said they could not raise the capital needed to commercialize the burger.[1][2]
Founding Story
Joshua March and Jessica Krieger founded the company as Artemys Foods in 2019. Krieger left the following year, when scientist Kasia Gora joined as cofounder and chief technology officer. The company became SCiFi Foods in 2022. Its goal was to grow beef cells for food and combine them with plant ingredients.[2][3]
Timeline
- 2019: The company began as Artemys Foods.
- 2022: It adopted the SCiFi name and announced a $22 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz.
- 2023–24: The team built a pilot facility and reported a run using a 500-liter bioreactor.
- June 2024: The company stopped operations and began an asset-sale process.
- 2024–25: The Good Food Institute bought selected cell lines and growth media, then announced plans with Tufts to make them available for research.[2][4][5][6]
What They Built
The team worked on beef cell lines that could grow as individual cells suspended in a nutrient medium. It used gene-editing techniques to develop cell lines suited to production. The planned burger blended cultivated beef with plant-based ingredients; March described a pilot formulation containing about 10% cultivated meat. This was a product strategy intended to reduce the volume of expensive cells needed per burger.[2][5]
Market Position
Target Customers
The intended buyers were food-service customers and ultimately diners.
Market Size
The sources reviewed do not establish a reliable addressable market estimate for this company.
Competition
Other companies pursued cultivated chicken, beef or seafood, while plant-based producers already sold alternatives without cultivated cells. SCiFi's hybrid approach aimed to use beef cells to improve taste while keeping most of the product plant-based. The investor's account described positive taste tests, but those tests do not establish repeat purchases or a viable retail price.[3][2]
Business Model
The company planned to sell a food product, initially through food service, subject to regulatory approval. Production required cell growth, food formulation and a path to scaled manufacturing. It had not brought the burger to stores or restaurants when it shut down.[7][8]
Traction
The $22 million Series A brought reported funding to $29 million in 2022; later reporting put funding at roughly $40 million. In its closure statement, the company said its estimated burger cost fell from $20,000 to under $15, based on its cell performance and media costs at its pilot facility. This was a company calculation, not an independently verified commercial price or evidence of production at full scale.[4][2][1]
Post-Mortem
Operating constraints and outcome
In June 2024 the founders said the company had reached the end of its runway and could not raise enough capital to commercialize. They appointed an adviser to sell intellectual property and other assets. Funding conditions were difficult across cultivated meat startups, but the available record does not quantify how much each technical, regulatory or market factor contributed to SCiFi's shortfall.[1][2]
The Good Food Institute later said it purchased selected bovine cell lines and serum-free growth media at auction in 2024. It partnered with Tufts University to make those assets available for research. This preserved part of the work; it was an asset purchase, not an acquisition that continued the startup's business.[6]
Key Lessons
- A hybrid changes the cost target. SCiFi used a smaller portion of cultivated beef alongside plant protein.
- A pilot is not a commercial launch. The 500-liter work preceded financing, regulatory and production steps still required for sale.
- Research assets can outlast a company. GFI purchased selected cell lines and media for research after SCiFi shut down.
Sources
- SCiFi Foods, Signing Off, company statement, 2024.
- SCiFi Foods closes, AgFunderNews, 2024.
- Investing in SCiFi Foods, Andreessen Horowitz, 2022.
- SCiFi Foods raises Series A, TechCrunch, 2022.
- First production run, FoodNavigator, 2024.
- Cell lines made available for research, Good Food Institute, 2025.
- Interview with Joshua March, Green Queen, 2023.
- Company closure, SFGATE, 2024.