Wild Earth, a Berkeley startup that makes plant-based dog food, announced Friday that it's raised a new $23 million funding round it will use in part to develop products with cell-cultivated meat.
“Shark Tank” star and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban contributed to the latest tranche of capital along with At One Ventures, Veginvest, Big Idea Ventures, Bitburger Ventures, Gaingels, and actor Paul Wesley, star of “Vampire Diaries.” With the new funding, 4-year-old Wild Earth brings its total raised to just shy of $40 million, per Crunchbase.
Wild Earth is working on new product lines involving cell-cultivated beef, chicken and seafood for dogs (and, just in: cats!) with the goal of being market ready as early as next year. The company manufactures its plant-based food at scale in facilities in the Midwest and will create the first iterations of the cell-grown meat in its Berkeley Cell Valley Labs co-working facility, but is also looking into other sites to fully scale up production.
To date, the startup has sold its plant-based dog food, made from the soy sauce-starring superfood koji and a motley of vegetable proteins and grains, directly through its website and in some retailers. Early explorers beware of sticker shock: a single four-pound bag sells for $29, but bulk subscriptions include a discount.
CEO Ryan Bethencourt co-founded the company in Berkeley in 2017. In a press release announcing the new funding, Wild Earth indicated it is headquartered in Berkeley as well as Durham, North Carolina. Bethencourt also told our sister publication, the Triangle Business Journal, last week that Wild Earth relocated its headquarters to Durham months ago — and about half the team is based there currently — because of lower costs and better hiring prospects for the company.
"It’s just harder to recruit in the Bay Area,” he said. “And we just found the whole ecosystem in North Carolina so much more welcoming.”
Alternative protein startups, well-represented in the Bay Area, are forging ahead with ambitious production goals and awareness campaigns coming off a record year of venture funding and anticipation of the first U.S. regulatory approvals for those products, potentially by the end of the year. One recent milestone? San Francisco’s Eat Just Inc. scored the world’s first ever regulatory approval to sell cell-cultivated meat to consumers in Singapore late last year.
Wild Earth's market strategy has a certain kind of genius to it: compared to Atelier Crenn diners, dogs are less picky (mine enjoys rocks, shoes, and earrings, so cell-based meat shouldn't be an issue). Additionally, while animal proteins are still subject to some Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, one can imagine that for the sustainability-minded consumer there's an easier path to the pantry via the doggy bowl than the dinner table.
Tom Chi, founder of At One Ventures, which invests in early-stage companies working in sustainable production (such as Emeryville's Finless Foods), praised the Wild Earth team for its “unique combination of consumer instinct and deep scientific skill,” in a statement.
“Meat production is the most climate intensive part of our food system, driving nearly as many emissions as the global energy sector,” he said. “Wild Earth is changing the game by addressing the 20% of meat consumption that goes to pets.”
Check out Wild Earth's stay in the “Shark Tank” on Season 10 below. Spoiler alert: Cuban made the deal with CEO and co-founder Ryan Bethencourt for a 10% stake in the company for $550,000.
