SIMPLE Planet Raises KRW 8 Billion in Pre-Series A for Cell-Cultured Food Development

SIMPLE Planet Raises KRW 8 Billion in Pre-Series A for Cell-Cultured Food Development

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The Korean cell-cultured food ingredient development company, SIMPLE Planet, has successfully secured KRW 8 billion in a pre-Series A funding round.

This round of investment was participated in by major VCs and corporations, including POSCO CAPITAL, DCP PRIVATE EQUITY, EASY Holdings, Merry Year Social Company (MYSC), Prologue Ventures, PathFinder H, Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs(DCamp). Previously, the company had raised KRW 2 billion from investors, including Pulmuone, bringing its total accumulated investment to approximately KRW 10 billion.

Thanks to this investment, SIMPLE Planet has started constructing a GMP production facility for the mass production of cell-cultured high-protein powder. The company plans to achieve significant milestones, such as process technology optimization, food ingredient approvals, and overseas expansion. The cell-cultured high-protein powder developed by SIMPLE Planet is characterized by its high protein content and the possibility of diversification across various product lines.

According to a SIMPLE Planet official, this round of investment acknowledges the company’s core technologies, including its suspension cell line development platform and its possession of specialized suspension cell lines capable of producing materials from a variety of organisms, such as cows, chickens, pigs, and fish, totaling 13 species. Leveraging its cell-culturing capabilities, SIMPLE Planet has achieved significant recognitions, including first place in the food tech category at the American startup pitch contest ‘WKBC’, selection in the UK’s Forward Fooding FoodTech 500, the Sustainable Food Challenge 2023 by MassChallenge in Switzerland, and first place in the sustainability category at Singapore’s X-Pitch.

Additionally, strategies for meaningful revenue generation, not just cell line development, were crucial to the investment. Last September, the company launched ‘Balboa Kitchen‘, a B2C convenience food brand, and is aggressively expanding its distribution network, both domestically and internationally.

Jeong Il-doo, CEO of SIMPLE Planet, stated, “Despite the challenging investment climate, our pre-Series funding round was overbooked. We are in the process of establishing a GMP facility for the mass production of cell-cultured food ingredients.” He added, “We expect to accelerate the development of serum-free edible culture media, which we are also researching. Moreover, we have been collaborating with global food companies since last year to utilize cultured meat prototypes. We aim to create significant outcomes through new business planning and international expansion by building cooperative relationships with global companies.”

Furthermore, in January, SIMPLE Planet signed a strategic partnership agreement with Plug and Play, the world’s largest accelerator and investment firm, and S&S Lab, which operates ‘IRIS Lab‘, South Korea’s first private-led shared laboratory. The main objective is to build an ecosystem for food tech startups. Thus, SIMPLE Planet is making proactive and progressive steps in discovering various domestic and international partners, moving beyond in-house R&D, revenue generation, and brand management.

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