South Korea-based Simple Planet, a producer of cultivated ingredients, has raised $6 million in an oversubscribed pre-series A round.
Participants included POSCO CAPITAL, DCP Private Equity, EASY Holdings, Hyundai Venture Investment, and more. A previous $1.5 million investment led by Pulmuone takes Simple Planet’s total funding to $7.5 million, which is particularly impressive in light of the challenging investment climate.
Some of the funding will be used to build a facility for the mass production of Simple Planet’s high-concentrate cultivated meat powder. The remainder will be used to optimize development processes, enter global markets, and gain regulatory approvals.
Simple Planet’s technologies include a suspension cell-culture platform with 13 cell lines from cows, pigs, chickens, and fish. The company launched a convenience food brand, Balboa Kitchen, in September to bring cultivated ingredients directly to consumers.
International recognition
Last year, Simple Planet revealed plans to expand into North America, with the aim of accelerating the commercialization of cultivated foods. The news followed the regulatory approval of cultivated chicken in the US.
Simple Planet has already gained significant international recognition for its technology, winning awards at two startup pitching competitions — X-PITCH 2023 in Singapore and WKBC in the US. The startup has also been included in the UK’s FoodForwarding FoodTech 500 list, and was the only Asian finalist in Switzerland’s MassChallenge Sustainable Food Solution Challenge 2023.
In January, Simple Planet entered a strategic collaboration with Seoul-based co-working laboratory and bio food tech cluster IRIS Lab. The company has also collaborated with the accelerator program Plug and Play.
“I am thrilled to announce the successful close of our oversubscribed pre-series A funding round,” said Simple Planet CEO Dominic Ildoo Jeong. “We eagerly anticipate the completion of our GMP facility and look forward to accelerating research on serum-free, edible cell culture media. Since the past year, we have been engaging in collaborations with global food companies, focusing on the development of prototypes for cell-based food products. We aim to explore new business plans to achieve global market penetration, leading to further significant results.”
