Believer Meats files for bankruptcy, revealing heavy debts as cultured-meat dream unravels
New court documents outline failed fundraising efforts, regulatory delays, and the financial strain behind the shutdown.
The cultured meat company Believer Meats (formerly Future Meat) filed for bankruptcy on Thursday in the Lod District Court, after failing to raise funding that would cover its debts and enable the operation of the large factory it built in North Carolina. Calcalist reported earlier this month that the company had ceased operations.
According to the court filing, Believer Meats’ debts amount to approximately NIS 34.7 million (approximately $11M). After failing to complete payments to the contractor that built its first-of-its-kind factory for the mass production of cultured meat, the contractor turned to a U.S. court and obtained a receivership order. Losses mounted, investors withdrew, and the company founded by Prof. Yaakov Nachmia of the Hebrew University is now nearing the end of the road, with an accumulated investment of roughly $390 million effectively wiped out.
“The company’s assets do not have the capacity to repay its obligations,” the company stated in its filing.
Following Calcalist’s report, sources close to Believer Meats said there was still a possibility of finding paths that would allow the company to continue, whether through new investors or real-estate solutions. However, given its financial condition, the company has now been forced to enter insolvency proceedings.
Believer Meats was once considered one of the world’s leading companies in the cultured-meat sector. But the industry has struggled with mounting challenges, including difficulties bringing products to market and a sharp pullback by investors. After the American subsidiary ceased operations, the Israeli company has now also been forced to shut down its laboratory activities.
In its insolvency application, Believer Meats said it had encountered “a serious economic crisis from which it has not been able to escape, despite many attempts made by the time the application was submitted.” The company cited several causes: prolonged and costlier-than-expected construction of the U.S. factory; extended delays in obtaining regulatory approvals; the ongoing impact of the Swords of Iron war, during which many employees were called up for reserve duty; and the naval blockade imposed by the Houthis in the Red Sea.
Believer Meats also acknowledged significant difficulty in raising capital, due both to the broader downturn in foodtech investment and to its status as an Israeli company. According to the filing, the geopolitical situation has led some investors to refrain from investing in Israel altogether.
The final blow, according to the company, was legal action recently initiated in the United States against its American subsidiary. The proceeding sought the appointment of a receiver over the factory and all company assets, along with approval of a foreclosure claim of $35.2 million, after Believer Meats failed to meet its obligations.
Efforts to raise capital failed, as did approaches to banks and other financial institutions. The net debt of the American subsidiary, established to build and operate the factory, to the parent company stands at NIS 672.4 million ($211M).
Company documents show that the cost of constructing the factory reached approximately $154 million for the structure alone, excluding equipment and machinery, compared with an original budget of $138 million. Construction was completed only in September, and the facility is still not ready for production. This came alongside what the company described as a “significant cash burn rate,” driven by high operating costs requiring heavy investment “before the company has revenue and before it has begun selling products.”
Believer Meats was founded in 2018 as Future Meat by Nahmias, head of the bioengineering center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He served as the company’s chief scientist until March 2023 and currently sits on its board. The company developed a platform for producing cultured meat without genetic engineering and raised substantial funding from major investors. It raised a $347 million Series B in 2021, taking its total funding to over $390 million, and was backed by investors including ADM Ventures, Menora Mivtachim Insurance, S2G Investments, Tyson Ventures, Rich Products Ventures, Manta Ray Ventures, Emerald Technology Ventures, Cibus Capital and Bits x Bites.
The cultured-meat sector as a whole is facing growing difficulties. Many companies are struggling to meet expectations and scale production. Products, typically based largely on plant ingredients with a small proportion of lab-grown cells, have remained stuck in laboratories due to high costs and the challenge of replicating processes consistently at industrial scale. As a result, investment in the sector has declined sharply, even as some companies have begun to secure regulatory approvals.
