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Burgeoning
US company Wild Type has generated $3.5 million in investment to develop a
slaughter-free alternative to conventional salmon grown from cells.
Lab-grown
salmon
The company
aims to offer salmon grown from stem cells to be used in both sushi and lox
dishes.
While products grown from cells are slaughter free – and often seen as a way to reduce
cruelty and environmental impact – they are not technically vegan as the calls are harvested from real animals, making the product controversial for some.
Flexible
technology
Wild Type creators,
former US diplomat Justin Kolbeck, and cardiology-trained Arye Elfenbein MD PhD, aim to develop technologies that can be used
applied to a number of products.
Kolbeck
said: “We didn’t want to build a tool that could just be used for beef, or a
specific type of chicken, or a specific fish.”
Culinary
partners
The brand
is working with a number of chefs – who regularly test the developing products.
Kolbeck
said: “We wanted to make sure we were building something that people would
love, so from day one we reached out to friends in the food business.”
The future
of protein?
Inspired by the need to feed a growing population, the company
obtained its hefty $3.5 million in investment with the help of Spark Capital, a
company which aids startups in the early stages of development – and takes
particular interest in the future of protein.
Spark
Capital investor, and soon-to-be Wild Type board member, John Melas-Kyriazi said: “This is an area we have been interested in for a long time at Spark: What is
the protein source that is going to feed the world over the next 50 to 100
years?”
