Top 5 Saham Daging Budidaya Laboratorium untuk Diinvestasikan (Agustus 2026)

Bisakah Daging Menjadi “Bebas Hewan”?

Since the dawn of civilization, food has come from two sources: plants and animals. The hunter-gatherers got plants from foraging and hunting. The later farming culture would plant crops and raise livestock.

Konsumsi daging telah menjadi bagian dari sebagian besar budaya makanan sejak saat itu. Jadi, meskipun veganisme memang menjadi tren yang berkembang, ada banyak konsumen yang sangat enggan meninggalkan daging. Ada juga banyak vegan yang menghindari konsumsi daging atas dasar etika (hak hewan), tetapi siapa yang tidak menyukai pilihan “daging bebas penderitaan”?

Dan ada juga kekhawatiran lingkungan. Cattle farming is a massive methane producer (a powerful greenhouse gas) and a massive land and water consumer.

This is why a new category of innovative startups is working on an alternative, with $2B invested in the sector in 2022. What you could grow in a lab is the final product, animal muscle tissues, without having ever to kill an animal.

Sumber: Steakholder

Tugas yang Sulit

Growing a steak directly in a lab is far from an easy task. Muscles are complex tissues that are hard to replicate artificially. Most of the culinary qualities come from an elaborate mix of different tissues, highly specialized cells, and a complex chemical mix.

Masalah pertama adalah memperoleh garis sel punca yang baik. Ini dapat menjadi proses yang teknis dan mahal.

Masalah berikutnya adalah membuat sel otot tumbuh menjadi steak yang padat dan lezat, bukan sekadar bubur setengah cair sel. Solusinya adalah menggunakan “scaffolding”, dengan memakai material seperti selulosa atau bahan buatan untuk membentuk daging masa depan. Kesulitan tidak adanya pembuluh darah dalam daging menjadi komplikasi tambahan.

Dan terakhir, ada pertanyaan tentang biaya. Industri daging budidaya laboratorium menggunakan banyak solusi berteknologi tinggi dan ilmuwan yang sangat terlatih. Namun ia harus bersaing dengan sekadar memberi makan dan menyembelih sapi. Jadi skala produksi dan metode yang efisien biaya diperlukan agar produk ini melampaui niche kecil.

Sumber: Steakholder

Top 5 Saham Daging Budidaya Laboratorium

This list has been made from a subjective analysis of assessing technology and the financial position of the companies. They are ordered from largest to smallest market capitalization. This is for educational purposes and not investment advice.

1. Tyson Food

TSN Grafik Harga

Tyson is a giant in food production, especially meat products, providing 20% of the meat consumed in the US. So, this investment might be putting off investors, seeing it as an ethical issue.

It is nevertheless a large investor in alternatives to meat through its venture capital branch, Tyson Venture.

It includes a 5% stake in plant-based meat substitute Beyond Meat (BYND ) and investments in Future Meat Technologies and Upside Foods. Upside Food became a $1B company in 2022, and Future Meat reached a cost of $7.7/pound of chicken in 2021.

Tyson also invested in mushroom fermentation technology, genomic food safety, a food ordering app, and plant-based shrimp products.

Tyson Foods (TSN ) is a $21B company, with 2022 revenues of $53B and $3.4B in net income. This makes it a very safe bet for investors looking for exposure to meat substitutes, both plant-based and lab-grown.

If society starts to turn away from conventional meat products, Tyson can rely on its investment to keep its business stable. And if it does not happen, it will continue to benefit from its dominant position in the traditional meat market.

2. JBS

Another meat giant, but from Brazil, with 250,000 employees. While it is primarily focused on meat, it is also involved in afferent businesses like cold chain, leather products, collagen, and logistics, for a total of 42 brands.

The company invested $100M in 2021 to acquire Spanish startup BioTech Foods and build an R&D center in Brazil. Commercial production is expected to start in 2024.

In 2021, it also acquired Dutch company Vivera, Europe’s largest independent plant-based food company, for $341M, adding to a previous similar acquisition of Seara. All significant investments for the $7.8B company.

As for Tyson, this is a bet on dominant meat processors staying the industry leader, either with traditional products or with new alternatives. It also provides exposure to South American and European markets.

3. Agronomics Limited

Agronomics is a venture fund focused on lab-cultivated cells.

This includes lab-grown meat and alternatives to leather, eggs, and dairy, as well as plant-based alternatives, lab-cultivated chocolate, lab-cultivated cotton, and lab-cultivated pet food.

The portfolio is quite diverse, with various geographies, segments, and startup maturity, and the largest investment in one company is just 11.4% of the total portfolio and most below 5%.

Sumber: Agronomics

The company was a pioneer in the field, starting in 2018. So far, gross IRR (Internal Rates or Returns) have been an excellent 23%, with Agronomics Limited leading 14 funding rounds.

This company offers an interesting option for diversified exposure to the sector while letting VC specialists handle the research and pick what they consider the most interesting deals.

4. Cult Food Science

Another venture focused on innovative food products. The company was founded by Brendan Braziers, a co-developer of the Beyond Meat burger.

It is currently invested in 18 companies, including Eat Just, the first company in the world to have commercialized lab-grown meat (approved in 2020 in Singapore). The rest of the portfolio includes lab-grown meat, eggs, coffee, seafood, dairy, honey, gelatin, and chocolate.

Agronomics Limited only invests in pre-revenue startups, so it is too early to use earnings or cash flow as a metric. It is a bet that lab-grown meat will reach the point where it is widely consumed and profitable thanks to decreased costs and technological improvements.

Together, these 2 venture investments can offer very diversified exposure to lab-grown food products.

5. Steakholder Foods Ltd

STKH Grafik Harga

Also formerly known as MeaTech 3D Ltd. The company has 80 employees, with a presence in Israel, Belgium, and the USA, and raised a total of $54M. It is also one of the rare lab-grown meat companies not acquired by a larger company and chose to be publicly listed.

Steakholder relies on tissue 3D printing to produce its meat and has submitted 18 patents on that topic (4 patents granted so far). It should allow it to fully replicate the look and texture of full-animal meat, aka “structured meat.”

Sumber: Steakholder

The company aims to submit its products to regulators in early 2023 in Singapore and in late 2023 for the USA and EU. So the company is, for now, pre-revenue but could reach commercialization soon.

With barely a double-digit market cap, Steakholder is a bet that their 3D printing technology can allow for a superior product, quick growth, and more fundraising.

The company had $11M in cash in Q3 2022 for a quarterly loss of $2.5M. The stock listing might be forced to move from NASDAQ to the OTC market as it has recently been trading below $1/share.

Membangun Portofolio Daging Budidaya Laboratorium

Investor interested in that sector can choose between a few different strategies.

The first one is to count on the dominant meat sellers to keep their grip over the market through their marketing firepower, distribution network, and deep pockets. In this context, lab-grown meat would not really change the market structure, just the products sold.

Another option is to hope for newcomers to be more innovative and efficient and create a whole new segment they will come to dominate. In that case, if the bet is on the sector in general, investment in diversified venture firms allows not to have to “pick a winner” and just let VC do the leg work of research and due diligence.

Lastly, investing directly in individual companies is an option. For now, the choice is quite limited, but many of the currently private cultured meat companies will try to IPO in the future. This can be riskier but also more profitable if the stock selection turns out to be the right one.