XPRIZE Announces Winners of $15M Competition to Develop More Sustainable Proteins
XPRIZE, the organization that hosts competitions to find solutions to global challenges, has announced six finalists for its $15 million XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion (FTNB) competition. The competition, launched in 2020, aims to encourage the development of sustainable and affordable alternatives to chicken breast and fish filets that can satisfy the growing demand for meat products among a growing global population.
According to the release, the six finalists developed “consistent cuts of other meat that replicate the appearance, taste, smell, feel, cooking and nutritional properties of a structured filet of fish or chicken breast.” The finalists were selected by a panel of judges “of diverse experts in international sustainability, agricultural and biological engineering, the food industry, and experts working at the highest levels of education and research.”
The finalists, selected from a semi-final group of 28 companies (later expanded to 31), include a mix of cell-based, fermentation, and plant-based platforms. The mix between chicken and fish is 50/50, three of each:
- CellX: A mobile-based chicken team from China
- Eternal: A fermented chicken group from Argentina
- PlantEat: The South Korean plant-based chicken team
- ProFillet: A team of plant-based fish from Canada
- Revo Foods: A plant-based fish group from Austria
- TFTAK: Plant-based fish group from Estonia
Just as impressive as which companies were selected as finalists is which ones did not make it to the final round. The list of semi-finalists includes some of the biggest names in cell-based protein (UPSIDE, Good Meat, Blue Lulu to name a few), mycelium-based (Atlast/MyForest, Good Meat Company) and fermentation-based products (Air Protein), and none of these companies made the final round.
Another surprise is that none of the selected companies were based in the United States, a country that has seen the largest amount of venture capital going into alternative protein. Two of the finalists are from Asia, two from Europe, one from Latin America and one from Canada.
One of the reasons why some of the big names did not end up in the list of winners is undoubtedly due to the withdrawal of about 11 companies at the beginning of the year due to the review of the changes in the rules of the competition last year which Aspire, one of the sponsors of the event, will have the first right to refuse to invest in the finalists. The rules were slightly revised in September, but the restrictions still proved too much for many finalists such as Eat Just, Wild Type and the Better Meat Company.
The FTNB competition was modeled after XPRIZE conducted an analysis of global food system challenges in which it identified 12 breakthroughs that could create a more food secure and environmentally sustainable world by 2050. Of these 12, the group singled out the demand for protein alternatives on average as a critical impact area requiring significant technological advancements, price reductions, and significant consumer change.
From here, the winners will head to the next round of tasting. The semi-final round was hosted in Abu Dhabi, home of Aspire, which sponsored the XPRIZE competition alongside the Tony Robbins Foundation. According to XPRIZE, the winning team, which will be selected in 2024, will develop a consistent cut of chicken breast or other methods of fish file (115 grams / 4 ounces) that can reproduce the sensory properties, structure, flexibility, and nutritional profile of chicken or normal fish, while having a lower area compared to the available environment than animal agricultural products.
