Evolved Meats (formerly known as CaroMeats), a Mississauga, Ontario, Canada-based cultivated meat startup, raised $2 million in seed funding.
This round was led by Canada’s protein company, Maple Leaf Foods Inc., joined by a global protein fund, Big Idea Ventures, and investors Garage Capital, Saltagen Ventures, the University of Waterloo’s Velocity Fund, and strategic angels.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate product development and scale-up its production processes.
By growing meat directly from stem cells, Evolved’s technology represents a sustainable path forward to mitigate both of these challenges. Evolved’s species agnostic platform grows whole cuts of meat that are structurally and biochemically identical to conventional cuts of meat butchered from animals (eg. steak, pork belly, chicken breast, fillet of fish, etc). In addition, Evolved can leverage its ability to grow functional tissue to create a unique production system that gives it the opportunity to become a low-cost operator in the space.
Led by CEO Alireza Shahin, Evolved is creating a sustainable food company that can recreate the fibrous texture, marbling, taste, mouthfeel, and nutrition of conventional meat directly from cells. Its process uses less land and less water than current meat production and generates fewer greenhouse gases and harms 100% fewer animals.
