Bezos Earth Fund Vice Chair Lauren Sánchez announces US$60 million to establish Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein

In our opinion, this has to be the best news week so far this year, with key funding announcements, product breakthroughs, new partnerships, and scaling successes dominating the headlines!

Before diving into those, though, we have another few Future of Protein Production Chicago speaker interviews for you, with Udi Lazimy from Lazimy Regenerative Impact Partners and Ryan Kromhout from Krohne in our interview chair (albeit not at the same time!).

With just 36 days to go until the conference kicks off on 24/25 April, we’re thrilled that tickets are being snapped up by delegates from all around the world. However, if you want to grab your seat at the reduced rate and save US$300, you only have until 29 March, so hurry while these final discounted tickets are still available. Click here to join us in Chicago!

To start this week, a friend of our platform featured in a recent issue of Protein Production Technology International has successfully scaled up the production process for its first product, a solid fat designed to replicate the properties of animal-derived fats for use in alternative meat products, to cubic meter bioreactor scale. Meanwhile, another friend, who pitched at our Amsterdam conference last October, has announced a successful pre-seed funding round of €1.1 million, led by one of Europe’s leading VC funds. We are beyond happy for both!

In other news, we were pleased to see the news of a US$60 million commitment to establish Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein as part of the Bezos Earth Fund’s US$1 billion commitment to food transformation, which will target major technological barriers to reducing cost, increasing quality, and boosting nutritional benefit of alternative proteins by advancing science and technology.

And in Germany and Austria, there was a reminder that the people (and not politicians) will ultimately decide the fate of cultivated meat, with new research indicating nearly two-thirds of people believe consumers should have the choice to eat cultivated meat once it has been approved!

We’ll be back this time next week with another fresh batch of exciting developments from this dynamic sector. Until then, we wish you a happy, healthy and successful seven days!

🐙Austria's Revo Foods unveils the first plant-based octopus alternative

💰 Bezos Earth Fund Vice Chair Lauren Sánchez announces US$60 million to establish Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein

😽 UK's first lab-grown meat could be for cats, according to Meatly's Owen Ensor