(Aleph Farms opens a 65,000 square foot facility, located at Stratasys building in Rehovot, Israel. Photography: Amit Goren)
It’s been an exciting start to the New Year, including preparing for a watershed space mission for our space program, Aleph Zero, and the start of our important work with Federation University Australia to better understand the role of cultivated meat in leading the livestock farming industry through a Just Transition.
We are now thrilled to share that we’ve moved into our new headquarters in Israel. This 65,000 square foot facility increases our operations sixfold, allowing us to launch our pilot production facility, build a state-of-the-art R&D center that enhances our technological leadership, and open a community center that will embrace the creative ethos of Aleph Farms and our approach to the future of food.
More than merely expanding our footprint, this move prepares us for a busy year ahead, as we work toward the global commercialization of our cultivated steak. As we transition to our pilot production facility – one that will house some of the world’s most advanced technologies in cellular agriculture – we will not only better serve our efforts to gain regulatory approval for our first, thin-cut beef steak, we can also optimize processes towards our larger scale production facilities which are set to be built during 2022-2024.
“Aleph Farms team is passionate about changing the world around us, one bite at a time,” said Eyal Rivlin, VP of production and operations. “Our new facility enables us to scale our production capabilities and launch limited quantities of our steak around the end of the year, pending regulatory approval. We’ve worked hard to get here, and it is exciting to see the infrastructure that will help bring our vision to life.”
The new facility is located near our current office in the city of Rehovot, Israel’s biotech hub. It will soon be home to more than 100 of our team members. In Israel alone, we’ve nearly doubled our team over the last year, and it was important that we create a space for our multi-disciplinary teams to work side-by-side to fulfill our mission to feed the world and preserve the planet.
Environmental sustainability is critically important to all of us at Aleph Farms, and it informs every choice we make. We are proud that the building design of our new facility has earned a silver-level certification under the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) system, recognized for incorporating innovation in energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality.
To add to the excitement, this facility lays the foundation for Aleph Farms to launch a new department called Aleph Frontiers, an incubator of innovation that will serve as a pipeline for new products while also validating new concepts for product development.
Dr. Neta Lavon, who is our VP of R&D and who was recently promoted to CTO, is leading the expansion of Aleph Farms’ technological platform for different types of cell-cultured products and will also serve as the head of the Frontiers department.
“We are committed to driving impact through innovation,” said Dr. Lavon. “This is why we have been hyper-focused on developing the most advanced technology in the cultivated meat industry. Expanding our R&D footprint in this new facility will help us drive exciting new advancements for the field of cultivated animal products.”
We are looking forward to our pilot facility becoming fully operational by summer this year, ahead of our initial market launch around the end of 2022, pending regulatory approval. Be sure and stay tuned for more details as we share sneak peeks and prepare to formally welcome everyone to our new headquarters.
