TIDMANIC
RNS Number : 1963K
Agronomics Limited
04 May 2022
9.00am 4th May 2022
Agronomics Limited
("Agronomics" or the "Company")
Portfolio Company VitroLabs completes financing to build and
scale the world's first pilot production of cell cultivated
leather
Agronomics (AIM:ANIC), the leading listed investment company
focused on the field of cellular agriculture, is pleased to
announce that portfolio company VitroLabs, Inc ( "VitroLabs"),
engaged in cultivated leather production, has completed its Series
A financing round, raising US$ 46 million. This round was led by
Agronomics following its US$ 7.0 million investment in September
2021 - see the full announcement here . New Agrarian Company
Limited, the private vehicle investing alongside Agronomics, has
also participated with a US$ 7.5 million subscription.
Agronomics now holds an equity ownership of 10% on a fully
diluted basis and has the right to a board seat. Subject to audit,
the VitroLabs position will represent 6.6% of last reported Net
Asset Value.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014, as
it forms part of UK Domestic Law by virtue of the European Union
(Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of this announcement,
this inside information is now considered to be in the public
domain.
The full announcement is set out below without any material
changes:
VitroLabs raises $46 million to build and scale the world's
first pilot production of cell cultivated leather
Series A funding is led by Agronomics; other investors include
BESTSELLER's Invest FWD, global luxury group Kering, Khosla
Ventures, actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio, New
Agrarian, and Regeneration.VC
[Milpitas, California -- May 4, 2022] VitroLabs Inc, a
Bay-Area-based biotech company leading the development of a new
scientific process to grow the world's first cellular cultivated
animal leather, today announced that it has closed its Series A
financing to build and scale pilot production. The company has
raised a total of $46 million. Series A funding is led by
Agronomics; other investors include BESTSELLER's Invest FWD, global
luxury group Kering, Khosla Ventures, actor and environmentalist
Leonardo DiCaprio, New Agrarian, and Regeneration.VC. In addition,
Kering continues its partnership with VitroLabs in bringing support
for product quality testing, tanning, and finishing.
CEO Ingvar Helgason co-founded VitroLabs with the mission to
create the highest quality materials that meet the uncompromising
standards of the luxury industry while drastically lowering
environmental impact and furthering animal welfare. "At a time when
environmental stewardship is more important than ever, biotech
companies have the opportunity to lead the way in changing how we
produce materials and build supply chains, working hand in hand
with existing artisans and craftspeople who are the cornerstone of
the $400B leather goods industry," says Helgason. "By launching the
first production of cultivated leather, we'll hit a major milestone
in fulfilling our mission to lead the shift towards a more
sustainable future."
"At Kering, a chapter/pillar of our sustainability roadmap is
dedicated to sustainable innovation and actively looking for
alternative materials that can reduce our environmental impact over
the long term is part of the solutions we have been exploring for
years. We believe that innovation is key to addressing the
sustainability challenges that the luxury industry is facing, which
is why we are very interested in the potential of biomaterials such
as cultivated leather," said Marie-Claire Daveu, Chief
Sustainability and Institutional Affairs Officer at Kering.
Helgason adds: "There has been an explosion of companies that
are developing alternative materials to leather. However at
VitroLabs, our cultivated animal leather preserves the biological
characteristics that the industry, craftsmen, and consumers know
and love about leather, while eliminating the most environmentally
and ethically detrimental aspects of the conventional leather
manufacturing process associated with its sourcing."
Based in Milpitas, California, VitroLabs is the first start-up
positioned to bring cultivated leather to scale. Since 2016, the
company has been pioneering the cutting edge material made by using
advanced tissue engineering processes to create cell cultivated
animal leather from only a few animal cells. The company has made
significant progress on product quality in the optimization of cell
expansion processes and proprietary design of a novel, large-scale
tissue cultivator. Last fall, VitroLabs moved into its new, 45,000
square foot facility, designed for pilot production and laboratory
space as the company moves from the bench towards
commercialization. Series A funding will be used to fast-track
commercialization, with expansion of scientific, manufacturing, and
business development teams. "VitroLabs' scalable tissue engineering
platform provides sustainable, high quality leather," says Jim
Mellon of Agronomics. "We are thrilled to be continuing our support
for VitroLabs, the leading luxury cultivated leather company ready
for commercialisation."
Co-Founder and stem cell scientist Dr. Dusko Ilic says: "Over
the last two years, we have been laser-focused on pushing our
tissue engineering platform in order to increase efficiency and to
optimize tissue production to obtain the look, feel, and
performance of traditional leather at scale. With several major
breakthroughs in the areas of bioreactor design, bioprocess and
facility design, and cell culture development, we are now on our
way to a scalable process that delivers the desired premium
qualities, forging a path towards the ultimate goal of
industrialization."
Media Contact
You You Xia
Director of Marketing & Communications
youyou@vitrolabsinc.com
917-209-0042
About VitroLabs
VitroLabs, founded in 2016 and headquartered in Milpitas
California, is a biotech company developing a scalable tissue
engineering platform for the efficient and environmentally friendly
production of leather from only a few cells. Combining advanced
tissue engineering processes with proprietary advances to achieve
commercial scale, VitroLabs is on a mission to produce cell
cultivated leather that achieves the look, feel and performance of
traditional leather without compromise. The cultivated leather
process involves taking a one-time collection of cells from an
animal, which then grows in a nutrient-rich environment. Without
ever going back to the animal again, the cells grow, divide, and
form into tissue. The composition of the material achieves the
complexity of traditional hides, containing a variety of proteins
that make up a durable and luxurious material when finished, but
without the need to go to animals as an ongoing source of hides.
The process is more environmentally sustainable and favorable for
animal welfare than that which is used to produce traditional
leather. For more information, visit www.vitrolabsinc.com .
About Agronomics
Agronomics is a leading listed alternative proteins company with
a focus on cellular agriculture and cultivated meat. The Company
has established a portfolio of 21 companies at the Pre-Seed to
Series C stage in this rapidly advancing sector. It seeks to secure
minority stakes in companies owning technologies with defensible
intellectual property that offer new ways of producing food and
materials with a focus on products historically derived from
animals. These technologies are driving a major disruption in
agriculture, offering solutions to improve sustainability, as well
as addressing human health, animal welfare and environmental
damage. This disruption will decouple supply chains from the
environment and animals, as well as being fundamental to feeding
the world's expanding population. A full list of Agronomics'
portfolio companies is available at https://agronomics.im/ .
About Cellular Agriculture
Cellular Agriculture is the production of agriculture products
directly from cells, as opposed to raising an animal for slaughter,
or growing crops. This encompasses cell culture to produce
cultivated meat and materials, and fermentation processes that
harness a combination of molecular biology, synthetic biology,
tissue engineering and biotechnology to massively simplify
production methods in a sustainable manner.
Over the coming decades, the source of the world's food supply
traditionally derived from conventional agriculture is going to
change dramatically. We have already witnessed the first wave of
this shift with the consumer adoption of plant-based alternative
proteins but today, we are on the cusp of an even bigger wave of
change. This is being facilitated by advances in cellular
agriculture. This change is necessary, given scientists claims that
if we maintain existing animal protein consumption patterns, then
we will not meet the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to
1.5 .
AT Kearney, a global consultancy firm, projects that cultivated
meat's market share will reach 35% by 2040. This combined with the
Good Food Institute's estimate that a US $1.8 trillion investment
will be required in order to produce just 10% of the world's
protein using this technology, means that we are on the cusp of a
multi-decade flow of capital to build out manufacturing facilities.
Funding in the field of cellular agriculture is accelerating,
however still less than US$ 2 billion has been invested worldwide
since the industry's inception in 2016.
For further information please contact:
Agronomics Beaumont Cenkos Peterhouse
Limited Cornish Limited Securities Capital TB Cardew
Plc Limited
The Company Nomad Joint Broker Joint Broker Public Relations
Richard Reed Roland Cornish Giles Balleny Lucy Williams Ed Orlebar
Denham Eke James Biddle Michael Johnson Charles Goodfellow Joe McGregor
+44 (0) 20 7930
0777
+44 (0) 1624 +44 (0) 7738
639396 +44 (0) 207 +44 (0) 207 +44 (0) 207 724 630
info@agronomics.im 628 3396 397 8900 469 0936 agronomics@tbcardew.com
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