California Cultured has moved into a new space in West Sacramento to develop its lab-generated chocolate and coffee made from cell cultures of those plants.
The company had previously been in the lab space at Inventopia, a Davis prototyping and research and development startup space. But as far back as the spring, California Cultured ran out of space in the Inventopia lab so it had to have employees work in shifts.
The new space is more than 12,000 square feet on the west side of West Sacramento, said CEO and founder Alan Perlstein. The space gives the company room to grow. It has set up a lab to keep working as it completes tenant improvements in the location over the next few months. It has 21 employees, up from 17 in the spring.
California Cultured is a 2020 startup working to produce sustainable chocolate and coffee compounds free from deforestation and child labor in the chocolate and coffee industries.
Earlier this year, it raised $4.5 million from global investors. The company is using techniques to get lab-grown plants to grow specific flavors.
California Cultured wants to get flavors at the level of high-quality chocolates and coffees. The product isn’t a substitute. It is a cell culture taken from plants and then raised in nutritious growing media. The company harvests the grown cells and ferments them to build flavor. It also roasts the cell-cultured cocoa nibs to add complexity.
California Cultured launched in Davis to take advantage of the plant technology and biotechnology scientists in the region and at the University of California Davis, Perlstein said.
He particularly likes to get students and recent graduates who have some relevant experience, but who haven’t had a career with one of the international food, chemical or seed technology companies.
“I want to find talented individuals who bring enthusiasm to come up with new ideas,” Perlstein said, adding that he’s not looking for scientists who are fixed on doing things the way they have always been done.
To get coffee and chocolate products that are sustainable and ethical, it’s better not to do things the way they have always been done, he said.
California Cultured wanted to stay in Davis, but it is difficult to find research or lab space in the college town, Perlstein said.
