Japanese cellular agriculture company IntegriCulture has raised ¥100 million ($635,000) from Niigata Venture Capital's Regional Revitalisation Niigata Fund II, Anay Mridul reported for Green Queen on 30 October. The money is part of a planned ¥700 million ($4.5 million) extension to the Series A round that brought in ¥800 million in 2020; the company has raised ¥375 million ($2.4 million) of the extension so far.
The Tokyo-based firm develops infrastructure for growing animal cells and products made with it, in food, materials and cosmetics. Cosmetics have been its first market, but it is also working on cultivated meat, including seafood and duck. Founder and chief executive Yuki Hanyu said a few more investors may join towards the end of the year.
Part of its model is working with sake breweries. IntegriCulture uses under-used by-products such as sake lees and algae residue as raw materials for cell culture, together with Niigata partners including Ichimasa Kamaboko, Tsunan Brewing and local universities. It joined the Niigata Food Tech Town Initiative, run by retailer Oisix and manufacturer NSG Group, earlier this year, and plans to make the prefecture a base for research, commercial trials and customer testing.
"We have also had new discoveries, such as cells growing in brewing water and sake lees," said chief technology officer Kazuhiko Kawashima, who said brewing techniques had taught the company how to standardise the environment in which cells grow.
The new funds will speed up its cell-based cosmetics, led by Cellament, a serum made by culturing cells from chicken eggs, and support sales to business customers and in-house research on its culture technology. Toshihiko Nagase, a director of Niigata Venture Capital, said the approach fits Niigata's fermentation, brewing and food processing base.
Hanyu told Green Queen earlier this year that IntegriCulture became profitable in its 2025 financial year.
Photo: nubobo / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Source: Green Queen
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