In previous articles, I have already written about the research into in vitro meat (IVM) that is currently done at universities (above all, Maastricht University). However, academic research is not enough for the breakthrough and success of IVM: in our market-based economy, we need companies that are genuinely interested in IVM, want to invest in its development and bring it to the markets as a commercial product. In this article, I want to explore the ‘business perspective’ of IVM on the basis of the story of a newly formed Dutch company: MosaMeat. For the time being, this will be the last post in this series.
I was lucky to have the opportunity to speak with the CEO of MosaMeat – Peter Verstrate – on two occasions of which the last was at the beginning of July. In what now follows, I will use the information I got from my interviews with Peter Verstrate to answer some of the most prominent questions regarding this new company and the future of IVM from a commercial perspective.
When and why was MosaMeat founded?
In 2013, the famous first IVM hamburger was presented by a research consortium in which Maastricht University played an important role. The main goal of this project was to produce a proof-of-concept and hence, most of its funding stopped after this goal was reached with the first IVM hamburger. Because some of the key-role players in this project -Peter Verstrate and Mark Post- recognised the potential of IVM and did not want its story to end there. They founded MosaMeat, a spin-off from Maastricht University.
What is their business model?
MosaMeat’s goal is to develop the technology behind IVM and its production process, build a pilot factory to prove its commercial viability and then sell the technology and the knowledge to other parties. Those parties will produce IVM products on a larger scale under license.
When will the first IVM product go to the market?
Verstrate expects that it will take around 4 years to fully develop the technology and then 2 years more to build the pilot factory and gain experience up-scaling the production process. So in 5 or 6 years from now, MosaMeat wants to introduce IVM into the market.
What kind of product will it be?
The IVM we are talking about here will be minced meat . As I discussed in earlier articles, minced meat is at the moment the only meat product that can be readily replaced by IVM. Minced meat also makes up around 40% of the meat we consume and this makes minced meat an excellent starting point for a company like MosaMeat that wants to bring IVM to the market.
How expensive will it be?
When it will be first brought to the market, IVM will still be more expensive than regular meat. Therefore, it will most likely be introduced as a premium product in for example exclusive restaurants. IVM’s technological character allows for optimisation and IVM is expected to be optimised rapidly after its introduction, making it cheaper and cheaper. In the not too distant future, IVM is expected to become price-competitive with regular meat.
Which crucial steps should be taken first?
Right now, MosaMeat has 3 main objectives:
- Find investors
- Develop the the technology behind IVM
- Receive legal approval of IVM
Last week, Verstrate told me that MosaMeat is in the process of closing deals with investors. These investors can be divided into two groups. The first group are the strategic investors: they are interested in using IVM technology themselves and want to obtain an exclusive license to produce IVM. The second group consists of mission-driven investors whose reason to invest is mainly ideological (e.g. animal welfare).
The second objective is actually twofold. Firstly, MosaMeat wants to develop the technology of making a meat product out of cultivated muscle fibers, and secondly it wants to develop the bio-fabrication process and prove that up-scaling the process is (economically) feasible (by building a pilot factory). At least for now, MosaMeat doesn’t have a lab of its own but cooperates with Maastricht University where all the research takes place.
To get IVM accepted, it has to go through the so-called novel food procedure of the EU which takes several years. It is fortunate for MosaMeat that this procedure has recently been shortened and streamlined to facilitate the breakthrough of new innovations like IVM (IVM is also specifically called in the procedure’s text).
How will MosaMeat promote their IVM product?
As they don’t have a marketable product yet, marketing is not one of MosaMeat’s priorities. The way IVM is promoted by MosaMeat in the future will also depend on the context (e.g. will they also produce IVM product themselves or limit their business to selling knowledge and licenses?).
And what if people don’t buy it?
In the past few years, IVM has gained a lot of popularity and people have gotten more familiar with the concept. Especially young people have an increasingly positive bias towards IVM and Peter Verstrate doesn’t expect public acceptance to be that great of a hindrance anymore.
Aren’t other companies trying to do the same thing?
To the best of Verstrate’s knowledge: not so many. A competitor of MosaMeat that is also working hard to develop an IVM product and bring it to the market as soon as possible is the North American company Memphis Meats (San Francisco Bay area, CA). They are approximately in the same stage as MosaMeat and don’t have a ready-to-sell product yet. Recently they performed a proof of concept by producing a ‘cultured’ meat-ball which apparently tasted exactly like regular meat. While MosaMeat focuses on beef, Memphis Meat seems to be focusing more on pork.
Conclusion
MosaMeat is a company that is intensively cooperating with Maastricht University which already produced an IVM hamburger 3 years ago. Its CEO Peter Verstrate seems to be an experienced and realistic businessman and I readily believe that his company and its competitors will be able to bring IVM to the market 5-6 years from now. I am more sceptical about the public acceptance of in vitro meat and the willingness to buy IVM. Although many people may sympathise with IVM, this doesn’t directly mean that they will buy it instead of normal meat. The attitude-behavioural intention gap (previous article) might be of importance here. It remains to be seen what the public perception of IVM will be 5-6 years from now and which role it will play in the future of IVM.
Meat of the Future? 