September 26, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Next-gen biotechnology startup Prolific Machines has emerged from stealth announcing multiple “massively oversubscribed” funding rounds totaling $42 million. 

Pre-Seed funding had been previously committed by Po Bronson, managing director, IndieBio and general partner, SOSV, who incubated the startup from IndieBio while they de-risked the early science.

“Prolific was a radical idea with a truly incredible team, exactly what IndieBio loves,” said Bronson. “Prolific has broken all of the records at IndieBio, and I see their technology as the best in this space.”

Arvind Gupta at Mayfield, the first investor in cultured meat, led a Seed round for the company, while the Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures led its Series A.

These rounds were also joined by a number of high-profile and significant co-investors including Mark Cuban, David Adelman, The Kraft Group, David Rubenstein, Michael Rubin, Breyer Capital, The SALT Fund, Purple Orange Ventures, Fred Blackford, Jake Poliskin, Baruch Future Ventures, Kevin Love, Tobias Harris, Meek Mill, Clara & Russell Wilson, Emily Ratajkowski, Maverick Carter, Sean Feeney, Michael Schulson, Mark Bucher, and RJ Melman.

The common focus of all of these investors is Prolific Machines – a biomanufacturing company developing new technologies to grow and differentiate stem cells at a dramatically lower cost to traditional methods.

Prolific stated that it intends “to do for biology what Henry Ford did for automobiles”, noting that in 1906 there were hundreds of car companies, however, very few people could afford a car. That is, until Ford invented the assembly line, making car production scalable and cars a mass market item.

Following suit, Prolific is inventing the scalable manufacturing process first, and the product second – creating technologies that are key to building a scalable assembly line for biology. And although the company’s initial focus is on cultured meat production, the technology they are developing is cell-agnostic. 

Prolific’s co-founder and CEO Dr. Deniz Kent launched the company after witnessing the Syrian refugee crisis in his hometown of Antioch, Turkey. At the time he realized that the crisis he was seeing was nothing compared to what will happen as a result of climate change, and began to apply his knowledge of stem cell technologies to create a sustainable food system.

Kent ended up developing  a new way of growing and controlling cells without the need for recombinant proteins – the most expensive part of cell production.

He spent the next three years searching for the ideal co-founders, eventually partnering with physicist Dr. Max Huisman, machine learning engineer Declan Jones to build a team to revolutionize biomanufacturing. 

“We are of the opinion that existing technologies being deployed in cultured meat will not reach price parity with factory farming,” said Kent.  “A fundamentally new approach is going to be required. We are inventing this new approach, and I’m open to making our technology available to every meat company. Our mission is to address the existential risks posed by our changing climate, and we have no time to waste.”

Commenting on what prompted their leading the Seed round for Prolific, Mayfield partner Arvind Gupta said, “I never intended to invest in another cultured meat company. But when Deniz showed me what they were doing, I was blown away by the creativity in their approach to reinvent the assembly line for food production. It is my goal to help reverse climate change by partnering with incredible teams, and I am convinced Prolific Machines will be a winner in the race for sustainable food production.”

Next steps for the company include continuing to build its 25,000 square-foot headquarters in Emeryville, California, and embarking on hiring additional team members to expand its assembly line programs to include fish, poultry, and beef.

“Prior to meeting Prolific we had come to the conclusion that a fundamental breakthrough would be required for cultured meat to be economically competitive with conventional meat production,” said Carmichael Roberts, Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “We believe that Prolific Machines may be this breakthrough. Prolific’s novel technology has the potential to enable the cost-competitive production of high-quality cultured meat products and they have the team to execute it.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

*The content put forth by Global AgInvesting News and its parent company HighQuest Partners is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. All information or other material herein is not to be construed as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Global AgInvesting and HighQuest Partners are not a fiduciary in any manner, and the reader assumes the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other content on this site.