Leonardo DiCaprio invests in Mosa Meat and Aleph Farms to transform the way meat is produced

Academy award winner Leonardo Di Caprio, who is also a committed environmental activist, has invested in food technology companies Aleph Farms and Mosa Meat to help advance the development of sustainable cultivated beef. 

Cellular agriculture is an emerging branch of biotechnology that deals with the production of animal-based products from cell cultures rather than directly from animals. 

With global meat consumption projected to grow 40-70 per cent by 2050, cultivated meat offers a solution to reduce the negative impact of industrial beef production. 

Analysts have projected that the cultivated meat market could reach $25B by 2030 as part of the broader protein transformation. The capital flows into the cultured meat industry have grown rapidly in the last few years. 

Di Caprio’s investment

“One of the most impactful ways to combat the climate crisis is to transform our food system. Mosa Meat and Aleph Farms offer new ways to satisfy the world’s demand for beef while solving some of the most pressing issues of current industrial beef production. I’m very pleased to join them as an advisor and investor, as they prepare to introduce cultivated beef to consumers,” says Leonardo DiCaprio.

Both companies have demonstrated the ability to grow beef directly from animal cells, with the unveiling of the first cultivated hamburger by Mosa Meat in 2013 and the first cultivated steak and ribeye by Aleph Farms in 2018 and 2021, respectively.

Mosa Meat: What you need to know

Mark Post and Peter Verstrate founded Mosa Meat in 2016 to find a new method to make real meat for people in a sustainable, healthy, and animal-friendly way.

Mosa Meat says that making cultured meat (clean meat) is similar to making livestock meat, except the cells grow outside the animal’s body. 

Headquartered in Maastricht, The Netherlands, Mosa Meat is a privately held company backed by Blue Horizon, M Ventures, Bell Food Group, Nutreco, Mitsubishi, and others.

Maarten Bosch, CEO of Mosa Meat, says, “Leonardo DiCaprio’s work to bring about positive change is closely aligned with our mission at Mosa Meat. We are thrilled to bring him on board as advisor and investor and work together to feed current and future generations sustainably.”

To date, Mosa Meat has secured $96M (approx €81.8M) in funding over 7 rounds. 

Aleph Farms: What you need to know

Founded by Didier Toubia and Shulamit Levenberg, Aleph Farms produces meat products from non-genetically engineered cells isolated from cows. Headquartered in Israel, the company aims to provide unconditional nutrition for anyone, anytime, anywhere.

The company has raised $236.4M (approx €201.6M) in funding over 5 rounds. 

Didier Toubia, Co-Founder and CEO of Aleph Farms said: “As a committed environmentalist, we welcome Leonardo DiCaprio to our advisory board and family of top-tier investors. Our team is committed to improving the sustainability of our global food systems and we’re thrilled to have Leo share in our vision.”