Modern Meadow is a biotechnology company using cellular agriculture and biofabrication to manufacture bioleather they call "Zoa" out of cultured animal free collagen mixed with natural and man made materials. They start with naturally occurring yeast strains and then use DNA-sequence editing to prompt the yeast cells to produce collagen, the main structural protein found in animal skin. The collagen is grown and assembled it into a fibrous sheet that can be processed, or can be combined with other materials, and tanned in order to be fashioned into various products. The company is based out of Nutley, New Jersey and was founded in 2011 by Andras Forgacs, Francoise Marga, Gabor Forgacs, and Karoly Jakab.
On December 28, 2013 Modern meadow raised a seed round of $2.5M including Sequoia Capital, Ulu Ventures, Starlight Ventures, Red Swan Ventures, Horizons Ventures, and others.
On June 19, 2014, Modern Meadow raised a Series A round of $10M. Investors included Horizon Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Black Point Group, and others.
In June 2016, Modern Meadow closed a $40M Series B funding round lead by Horizon Ventures and Iconiq Capital.
Patents
Biofabricated material containing collagen fibrils
Pending
2/15/2016
Dried food products formed from cultured muscle cells
Pending
7/26/2012
Dried food products formed from cultured muscle cells
Granted
2/5/2014
Edible and animal-product-free microcarriers for engineered meat
Granted
9/13/2013
Engineered biological nerve graft, fabrication and application thereof
Granted
2/2/2010
Engineered leather and methods of manufacture thereof
Pending
3/28/2012
Engineered leather and methods of manufacture thereof
Pending
3/28/2012
Fabric from the cultured cells and a method for their preparation
Pending
6/29/2015
Fiber reinforced tissue composites
Pending
9/21/2015
Method for making electrocompacted leather
Pending
2/15/2016
Methods and devices for preparing and continuously printing multicellular cylinders onto biocompatible substrates
Pending
1/9/2013
Reinforced engineered biomaterials and methods of manufacture thereof
Pending
11/3/2014
Self-Assembling Cell Aggregates and Methods of Making Engineered Tissue Using the Same
Granted
2/24/2004
Self-assembling multicellular bodies and methods of producing a three-dimensional biological structure using the same
Pending
6/24/2008
Spherical multicellular aggregates with endogenous extracellular matrix
Pending
9/7/2012
Timeline
Modern Meadow moved it’s headquarters to the former Hoffman-LaRoche campus in Nutley, NJ.
In June 2016, Modern Meadow closed a $40M Series B funding round lead by Horizon Ventures and Iconiq Capital.
On June 19, 2014, Modern Meadow raised a Series A round of $10M. Investors included Horizon Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Black Point Group, and others.
On December 28, 2013 Modern meadow raised a seed round of $2.5M including Sequoia Capital, Ulu Ventures, Starlight Ventures, Red Swan Ventures, Horizons Ventures, and others.
Modern Meadow is based out of Brooklyn, New York and was founded in 2011 by Andras Forgacs, Francoise Marga, Gabor Forgacs, and Karoly Jakab.
Funding rounds
People
Andras Forgacas
CEO, Co-Founder
Bridget Russo
Chief Marketing Officer
David Williamson
CTO
Gabor Forgacs
CSO, Co-Founder
Karoly Jakab
Co-Founder, Senior Scientist
Kevin Gironda
Chief Intellectual Property Counsel
Luck Dookchitra
Head of People
Rex Liu
VP Finance
Susan Schofer
VP Business Development
Suzanne Lee
Chief Creative Officer
Further reading
A Brooklyn startup that's armed with $40 million is growing real leather in a lab without hurting a single animal
Alyson Shontell, Business Insider
News article
Bolt Threads joins Modern Meadow in the quest to bring lab-grown leather to market
Jonathan Shieber
Web article
How Modern Meadow Is Fabricating The Animal-Free Leather Of The Future
Eillie Anzilotti
Web article
In the future will we all be wearing lab-grown leather and mushroom skin?
Sass Brown
Web article
Leather, Grown in a Lab Without Cows
Sarah Zhang
Web article
Modern Meadow raises $40 million to grow leather without livestock
Lora Kolodny
Web article
This leather is made in a lab, not from livestock
Lora Kolodny
Web article
Documentaries, videos and podcasts
Andras Forgacs: Growing Meat and Leather Without Killing the Animal
October 1, 2015
It Looks, Smells, And Feels Like Real Leather--But Itâs Grown In A Lab
February 20, 2018
Leather and meat without killing animals | Andras Forgacs
September 19, 2013
Modern Meadow: Bringing Biology To Your Wardrobe
July 11, 2017
Companies
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References
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Dawson Sewell
Writing about startups. - 2
Alex Dean
Healthcare Research Analyst @ Veradigm | Masters in Biostatistics/Epidemiology: UC Berkeley | BA in Biology: Wesleyan University - 3
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Golden People and Operations. - 4
Jude Gomila
Founder and CEO of Golden, Entrepreneur. Investor in 200+ companies. Cantabrigian (Gonville and Caius). Interested in the Universe. - 5
Melanie Manipula
Helping organize knowledge. - 6
Arjun Singh
Researcher - 7
Aime Anne Nisay
QA Engineer of web and mobile applications - 8
Axel Fehr
Machine learning engineer with a master's degree in electrical engineering and information technology. - 9
Jed Christiansen
Special Projects & Business Development at Golden, Founder - Seed-DB. - 10
Henry Ogolla
Passionate about reading and writing.
