- 2 years ago
Arik Kaufman, Co-Founder & CEO of Steakholder Foods Ltd. was recently a guest on Benzinga's All-Access.
Steakholder Foods is an international food-tech company developing a slaughter-free solution for producing cellular agriculture meat products, such as beef and seafood. It offers manufacturers the ability to produce a cultivated meat product that aims to closely mimic the taste, texture and appearance of traditional meat— as an alternative to industrialized farming and fishing.
Steakholder Foods is an international food-tech company developing a slaughter-free solution for producing cellular agriculture meat products, such as beef and seafood. It offers manufacturers the ability to produce a cultivated meat product that aims to closely mimic the taste, texture and appearance of traditional meat— as an alternative to industrialized farming and fishing.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - How's it going, Mr. Koffman, how are you doing today?
00:07 - I am fine, thank you.
00:09 - Well, thank you for joining us on Benzinga's All Access.
00:12 It's great to have you on.
00:13 This is one of my favorite parts of my job,
00:14 being able to talk to executives
00:17 of publicly traded companies like yourself
00:19 to learn more about the company.
00:22 Before we get started,
00:23 do you mind just giving us a brief overview
00:25 of Stakeholder Foods and what you guys do?
00:29 - Sure, so Stakeholder Foods is a publicly traded company
00:33 that traded in NASDAQ.
00:35 We develop very sophisticated 3D printers,
00:39 which print real cultivated meats.
00:41 Cultivated meats meaning real meats
00:44 that was evolved and established
00:47 without the process of slaughtering them.
00:50 - So tell us about the technology.
00:53 I mean, how does this 3D printing work
00:56 and what does the product look like
00:58 when it's finished printing?
00:59 - So, it looks, feel and taste exactly the same
01:05 as real meat.
01:08 And there will be like a learning curve for the whole
01:12 industry.
01:13 So the first products that enter the market,
01:14 they won't be 100% exactly the same as meat,
01:18 but there will be a huge leap forward
01:21 compared to the plant-based products that are there today.
01:26 And the process is that we collect real stem cells.
01:30 We know how to grow these stem cells.
01:32 We know how to load our printers and mix our printers,
01:37 the ink, which is plant-based ink with these stem cells.
01:41 Then we have a software that can determine exactly
01:44 how the steak will look like.
01:46 Will it be more fat, with less fat inside?
01:50 And then we see the accurately at the commercial base.
01:56 - And then Eric, so what is the raw material?
02:01 I mean, like, what are you guys putting into printer?
02:03 I mean, I know how 3D printers work
02:04 when we're talking about plastics and stuff
02:06 and not necessarily when it comes to food.
02:08 So what are you actually putting in to the printer
02:11 to come out with these foods?
02:15 - So it's a mix.
02:16 The ink itself is a plant-based ink.
02:20 We mix the ink with real cells,
02:23 real cells that grow into fat or into muscle.
02:27 And then the printer prints this mix of ink
02:31 and cells into an end product.
02:33 - So what is the business model look like?
02:37 I mean, are you guys, you know,
02:39 do you sell or lease these machines
02:41 for other companies to make their own meat?
02:43 What kind of clients are using the machines?
02:46 - So the whole cultivated meat industry is non-existent.
02:50 So no one sells the products yet.
02:53 The FDA has approved to sell these products
02:56 only a few months ago.
02:57 But we see our business model as something that will evolve.
03:03 In the beginning, we'll sell printers and ink
03:07 with the printers that will be able to print
03:10 plant-based products, plant-based products
03:14 that are not, that one cannot produce today
03:17 with current hardware.
03:18 We disclosed already a few months ago
03:21 that we've signed up first,
03:22 but in deal with the GCC accredited company.
03:26 Under this deal, we are intended to sell printers and inks.
03:30 And we hope to see additional exciting deals
03:35 that we're engaging in the future.
03:37 - So, I mean, you know, when you're a newer company
03:41 working on these kind of, you know, like new developments,
03:45 a lot of the research and development can be expensive,
03:49 but I understand that you guys have cut the cost actually
03:52 of your bovine solution by 75%.
03:56 Pretty incredible.
03:57 How did you achieve this?
03:58 - So in general, we are trying to stay as lean as possible.
04:03 It's not like easy to be a startup
04:07 that does not generate income yet.
04:09 That's why we focus, all our focus for R&D activities
04:13 that will lead to some kind of revenue.
04:16 That's how the first GCC deal came.
04:19 But in parallel, we keep advancing.
04:21 R&D keeps advancing.
04:23 We 3D printed the largest stake ever printed
04:26 at the end of 2021.
04:29 And it costed us a lot to 3D print this stake.
04:32 As you said, like, a year and a half forward,
04:36 we already cut the cost by 75%.
04:39 And we keep advancing.
04:40 We're producing the best.
04:43 At the end, this whole industry needs to reach prosperity.
04:46 That's the goal.
04:47 We don't intend to sell a stakes
04:49 that will cost three times more than the regular stake.
04:52 That's not the business model.
04:53 We need to reach that prosperity.
04:56 - Right.
04:57 And then, so, Eric, I understand
04:59 that you just announced a deal
05:00 with an accredited Gulf corporation council-based
05:04 governmental body to establish a first of its kind
05:08 large-scale production facility in the Persian Gulf.
05:11 Can you tell us more about this deal
05:13 and maybe what it means for the company?
05:15 - So, I think that in these times,
05:19 when you see the whole world fighting one against the other,
05:23 and particularly also here in Israel,
05:25 it was very exciting for us to sign this deal,
05:28 especially at that territory, which brings innovation.
05:33 And they have also the financial resources
05:37 to establish such facilities.
05:41 I cannot disclose things
05:42 that were not disclosed to the public.
05:43 I can say that it's strategic, as we said.
05:46 It's a multimillion dollar deal,
05:48 and it's only stage one of this deal.
05:51 So, this deal may evolve,
05:53 and it may affect different countries in the Persian Gulf.
05:59 - Well, yeah, I mean, again, congrats on that deal.
06:03 It sounds like it'll be a big deal for the company.
06:06 What kind of market penetration does this technology
06:09 need to make a significant impact on the environment?
06:12 I mean, you hear all the time
06:14 about how bad the meat industry
06:16 and cows are for the environment.
06:19 What kind of timeline do you see for this?
06:22 - So, I think that stage one will be
06:25 not replacing any meat producer,
06:28 conventional meat producers today.
06:30 It will just help to cope with the right meat.
06:35 But in the far future,
06:38 I assume that when we will see
06:40 a significant part of the market
06:43 transferred to cultivated meat,
06:45 it will take time.
06:47 Then we will see a significant reduction
06:49 in emissions that will be extracted there.
06:52 We'll see, like, printers do not need land
06:55 to 3D print cultivated meat.
06:56 They do not need water,
06:59 and they do not extract emissions.
07:01 So, as we will see, the percentage of this industry grow,
07:04 we will begin to see a positive effect on the climate.
07:08 - And then, right now, Eric,
07:11 what other kinds of meat and seafood products
07:13 are you guys working on?
07:15 - So, we have very exciting products in our pipeline.
07:19 The magic is that we can print with a printer
07:22 any species you can imagine,
07:23 you mix any species that you can imagine.
07:26 So, we target the whole seafood production products
07:33 as a sector that is really interesting.
07:36 Hopefully soon, we will be able to disclose
07:39 the initial information regarding these products.
07:42 - Well, Eric, it's been great to learn more
07:45 about stakeholder foods.
07:46 Again, guys, the ticker is up there on the screen,
07:48 STKH, if you want to learn more
07:52 about this very exciting startup.
07:54 Eric, I gotta try some of this meat and seafood.
07:57 You gotta send some to the office,
07:58 and I'll be your new test guinea pig
08:00 when you guys are doing some of these new foods.
08:02 I guarantee you'll grow a third eye or a tail.
08:06 - Yeah, yeah, that sounds good.
08:07 I'll take a lobster tail.
08:09 That's what it sounds, sounds good.
08:10 A little surf and turf, maybe.
08:12 A steak and a lobster tail you can send to Detroit,
08:14 and I'll eat it and let you know what I think.
08:16 - My pleasure, sure, thank you very much.
08:18 (upbeat music)
08:21 (upbeat music)
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