CULT Raises Assets From Cultured Meat Creation to Pet Food Startup Because Animals, New Investment By Marc Lustig
This week CULT Food Sciences announced that it has signed a letter of intent to acquire some of Ngoba Animals Inc.’s consumer brand assets, related patents, non-scientific intellectual property, and product development.
The acquisition of some of the assets of For Animals, one of the first programs dedicated to creating pet food using cultured meat, comes a few weeks after CULT announced that Canadian businessman, Marc Lustig, acquired 15% of the company by buying 27 million shares of CULT. With this agreement, Lustig, the manager of the cannabis industry who sold his company Origin House for $ 1.1 billion in 2019, becomes the largest shareholder of CULT. Although the terms of Lustig’s investment were not disclosed, the 27 million shares of CULT are valued at ~$2 million based on CULT’s stock price at the time.
While it’s unclear if the two deals were connected, what is clear is the move to bring some of the Because Animals IP has been in the works for a long time, following the announcement in November that Animals founder Joshua Errett has been named CULT’s VP of Product. Errett is one of the inventors behind some of the company’s key patents.
With the move, CULT, which describes itself as a company focused on investment, development, and sales of mobile agricultural technology and products, will expand its products in the area of pet food. The company, which also has investments in a variety of agri-based startups, has already launched consumer-facing products such as mobile-based coffee and sweets.
The terms of the agreement include Further Foods Inc., a subsidiary of CULT, acquiring assets from Joshua Errett in exchange for a USD$500,000 promissory note with a 4.35% interest rate and an initial 10% ownership stake in Further. Additional ownership stakes in In addition will be awarded to the seller based on the revenue generated by the assets after the closing of the transaction.
“Eliminating factory-farmed meat from the food we feed to the animals we raise will have far-reaching consequences for our society, and ripples across our food chain, economy and environment,” Errett said in the announcement. “We can rethink our entire food system, starting with what we put under our dogs and cats’ noses every day. I am personally committed to this cause, as today’s announcement makes clear. I look forward to continuing my important work on this amazing product.”
But Wait a Minute…
Although some of Fora Animals’ products are sold at CULT, Fora Animals’ remaining founder, Shannon Falconer, has made it clear that the company remains concerned and focused on creating organically grown pet food.
Falconer and Ngoba Animals sent the following statement to The Spoon, Green Queen and others:
“Culture meat is what our customers and future production partners have been asking for, and this is what we prioritize. The company’s strength is our strength in science, and since scientific innovation is key to bringing processed meat to market, we made the decision to use laser focus to achieve that and sacrifice any and all non-essential assets to realize what was not the goal.”
“We were surprised to see the announcement of CULT Food Science ‘CULT Food Science Announces a Binding Letter of Intent to Find Because Animal and Organic Consumer Products’ as CULT was not involved at all in our classification, and was not involved because Animals are contacted by CULT before their publication.
“Because Animals retains all of its intellectual property related to raised meat – which is our core business – and we are committed to revolutionizing the pet food industry with this technology.”
Because Animals said in a statement that supplies to CULT were nutritional yeast-based products were discontinued by the end of 2022. It was this product development of these products and two temporary patents related to discontinued products that Errett agreed to sell.
