REG - Agronomics Limited - Portfolio Company VitroLabs completes financing

AgronomicsAnnouncement

04/05/2022 09:00

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RNS Number : 1963K  Agronomics Limited  04 May 2022

9.00am 4th May 2022

 

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

("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
(https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/agronomics/news/rns/story/wkl45vx) .
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 (https://www.vitrolabsinc.com/)

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 (http://www.vitrolabsinc.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 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/
(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 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                                                                     +44 (0) 7738 724 630

                                                                                        agronomics@tbcardew.com

 

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