REG - Agronomics Limited - Agronomics co-leads SuperMeat’s Series A Financing

AgronomicsAnnouncement

08/03/2022 07:00

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RNS Number : 9350D  Agronomics Limited  08 March 2022

8(th) March 2022

Agronomics Limited (https://agronomics.im/)

("Agronomics" or the "Company")

 

Agronomics co-leads SuperMeat's Series A Financing

 

Agronomics, the leading listed company focused on the field of cellular
agriculture, is pleased to announce it has co-led the Series A Financing for
portfolio company SuperMeat The Essence of Meat Ltd ("SuperMeat") with a US$
10 million investment, subscribing for 188,158 Series A Preferred Shares.
SuperMeat is a leading cultivated chicken meat company based in Israel. The
funding round was co-led alongside New Agrarian Company Limited ("New
Agrarian"). Following the close of the funding round, Agronomics will have the
right to appoint a board member to SuperMeat and will have a 7.77% equity
interest. The investment will be made using cash from the Company's own
resources.

 

Agronomics first invested in SuperMeat in December 2020, with a US$ 2 million
investment in the form of a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity). This
SAFE will convert to 119,551 Series A Preferred Shares, representing a
Multiple on Investable Capital ("MOIC") of 2.97. In February 2022, Agronomics
purchased an additional 50,774 Preferred Seed Shares in SuperMeat via a
secondary transaction from an existing shareholder for total transaction cost
of US$ 500,124 which will, subject to audit, represent a MOIC of 5.04.

 

Agronomics will now carry the aggregate position in its accounts at a book
value of US$ 19.35 million, subject to audit, including an unrealised gain on
cost of US$ 6.95 million, representing an internal rate of return of 207%. The
SuperMeat position in the Agronomics portfolio will represent approximately
10% of Net Asset Value.

 

SuperMeat is a leading cultivated meat player, with their bioprocess capable
of producing cell densities of 150 million cells/ml, as well as displaying
strong product demonstration. In a taste test that occurred in January 2022,
SuperMeat's unseasoned chicken was indistinguishable to conventional chicken
as judged by a panel of culinary experts
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeawnUpvn_4&t=9s) . SuperMeat currently
allows individuals to visit their restaurant experience 'The Chicken' to try
their cultivated chicken products. At present, SuperMeat is working to obtain
regulatory approval in the US and Singapore for its chicken products to be
made available for inclusion in consumer products. The funding raised by
SuperMeat in this Series A financing will be used to establish SuperMeat's
first facility, as the company seeks to commercialise its chicken product in
the next 24 months.

 

Since this Acquisition is considered a Substantial Transaction under AIM Rule
12, this announcement requires certain disclosures under Schedule Four.
SuperMeat is an early-stage company with no revenues with operating costs of
approximately US$ 260k per month, and total assets as at 31 December 2020 of
approximately US$ 3.3 million with no material liabilities.

 

Jim Mellon, co-founder and executive director of Agronomics commented:-

 

"Agronomics is pleased to provide further support to SuperMeat, one of the
most established companies in this rapidly advancing field. The technical
progress they have made since our first investment has been exceptional with
some technical production metrics at the upper end of what the Agronomics team
has observed in the entire field. This recently culminated in a landmark blind
tasting event which demonstrated SuperMeat's chicken to be indiscernible from
conventional chicken by culinary experts."

 

Ido Savir, co-founder and CEO of SuperMeat, added:-

"We are excited to take further steps towards commercialization with the
leadership and support of Agronomics. Agronomics, which currently holds the
largest portfolio of cellular agriculture companies, provides a strong and
professional support as well as a global network of partners and connections
invaluable for our path to market. We are honoured to receive their continued
support.

New Agrarian, the new unquoted entity formed to accept funds from private
equity investors seeking exposure to the field of cellular agriculture also
participated in the financing for SuperMeat on the same terms as Agronomics
with a US $5 million investment and, following the investment, holds an
aggregate position, on a fully diluted basis, of 3.14%.

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.

About SuperMeat (https://supermeat.com/)

SuperMeat, headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, is a food-tech company working
to supply the world with high-quality meat grown directly from animal cells.
Their products offer a delicious meat experience and a high quality
nutritional profile, while being manufactured in a sustainable, slaughter-free
way.

 

SuperMeat's proprietary cultivated meat platform allows food companies to be
at the forefront of the emerging cultivated meat industry and manufacture a
wide range of products containing cultivated meat inside. SuperMeat is the
first B2B company to address the entire category of poultry meat from fat to
muscle, providing a complete solution to cultivated meat production.

 

The company has been showcasing the versatility of its meat platform at
various events at its pilot production plant, The Chicken
(https://thechicken.kitchen/) , the world's first farm-to-fork facility for
local meat production.

For more information about SuperMeat, visit Supermeat.com
(http://supermeat.com) .

 

About Agronomics (https://agronomics.im/)

Agronomics is a leading listed alternative proteins company with a focus on
cellular agriculture and cultivated meat. The Company has established a
portfolio of 20 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/
(https://clicktime.symantec.com/368cVqxx3R6vTFuHpf6MSE66Gi?u=https%3A%2F%2Fagronomics.im%2F)
.

 

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 Capital

 Limited                                          Cornish Limited       Securities Plc        Limited               TB Cardew
 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) 1624 639396                              +44 (0) 207 628 3396  +44 (0) 207 397 8900  +44 (0) 207 469 0936  +44 (0) 20 7930 0777

 info@agronomics.im (mailto:info@agronomics.im)                                                                     +44 (0) 7738 724 630

                                                                                                                    agronomics@tbcardew.com (mailto:agronomics@tbcardew.com)

 

 

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