Jeonnam National University Tenant Company Selmit Attracts Investment from US Venture Capital and Others

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Yoon Jamin] CellMEAT Co., Ltd., a tenant company at Chonnam National University, has attracted investment from American venture capital firms.

According to Chonnam National University on the 9th, CellMEAT secured early-stage investment from Primer (CEO Kwon Do-gyun), a leading domestic startup accelerator, the American venture capital firm Strong Ventures, and Primer's affiliated partners.

CellMEAT is a technology development company producing cultured meat using stem cells, with an R&D center located in the laboratory of Professor Lee Kyung-bon (Department of Biological Education) at Chonnam National University.

Founded in March last year, CellMEAT has been striving to develop cultured meat technology domestically since securing early-stage investment. In December last year, it was selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' private investment-led technology startup support program (TIPS), competing to secure a leading position in the emerging global cultured meat market alongside world-leading companies.

Park Gil-jun, CEO of CellMEAT, said, "Analyses suggest that the potential market for cultured meat production technology is larger than that for plant-based meat alternatives. With the support of CellMEAT’s investors and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, we will create a new convergent industrial field through cultured meat technology development."

Baek Ki-hong, CEO of Strong Ventures, stated, "Global protein demand is increasing exponentially, and to meet this, fundamentally new methods of producing protein must be developed. While alternative proteins like plant-based proteins are good, cultured meat is the most suitable for replicating the taste and texture of real meat, and we invested in CellMEAT because they possess such technology."

Currently, leading startups actively developing cultured meat technology include Mosa Meat from the Netherlands, Memphis Meats and JUST from the United States, Aleph Farms and SuperMeat from Israel, and Integriculture from Japan.