ProFuse Technology secures €2.4 million grant to accelerate cultivated meat production

ProFuse Technology, an Israeli innovator in cultivated meat muscle tissue development, has secured a significant €2.4 million (US$3 million) grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Transition program. This prestigious recognition validates ProFuse's groundbreaking technology, positioned to revolutionize the cultivated meat industry.

Standing out from a highly competitive pool of hundreds of applicants, ProFuse's selection underscores the strength and value proposition of their technology within the rapidly growing cultivated meat landscape.

Building on the successful validation of their solutions with multiple cultivated meat producers, ProFuse recently launched two key products: the PROFUSE-S1 media supplement, which accelerates and optimizes cultivated muscle growth, and the PROFUSE-B8 cell line, a unique bovine myoblast cell line that replicates indefinitely without genetic modification.

The EIC grant fuels ProFuse's continued advancements in cultivated meat technology. The funding will be directed towards scaling up production (developing ProFuse's technology to seamlessly integrate with large-scale cultivated meat production processes), regulatory pathway (completing the work required to obtain safety regulation approval for ProFuse's technology, a critical hurdle for the nascent cultivated meat industry), and industry collaboration (furthering ProFuse's partnerships with cultivated meat companies to drive broader adoption of their solutions).

This substantial grant exemplifies the European Union's commitment to fostering innovation in the promising alternative protein sector. Government funding plays a critical role in propelling advancements, particularly in capital-intensive industries like cultivated meat.

"ProFuse's technology offers a compelling solution," commented Dr Tamar Eigler Hirsh, CTO & Co-Founder of ProFuse Technology. "Our media supplements and muscle cell lines not only significantly reduce production costs but also enhance the nutritional value, texture, and taste of cultivated meat. This grant allows us to further refine our technology to support the large-scale production cultivated meat needs to achieve mainstream adoption."

"Regulatory approval is a crucial hurdle for the cultivated meat industry," added Guy Nevo Michrowski, CEO of ProFuse Technology. "This grant empowers us to make the final push to gain regulatory approval for the use of our PROFUSE-Sx media supplements in high-volume production."

Aviv Oren, Director of Business Engagement & Innovation at The Good Food Institute Israel, emphasized the importance of government support in this critical juncture. "ProFuse's success in securing the EIC grant underscores the vital role of government stakeholders in advancing capital-intensive industries like alternative proteins, which play a critical role in decarbonizing the economy. Alternative proteins are still in their early days, and reaching full potential requires significant investments in R&D and scaling – similar to the early days of EV and renewable energy innovation. As the sector grows and matures, we expect continued government support for mass commercialization of alternative proteins products and B2B inputs, like those developed by ProFuse."