New Age Meats announced today that it has raised $25 million in Series A funding, a crucial milestone that will allow the Berkeley-based cultured meat company to begin production by 2022.

Hanwha Solutions of South Korea led the funding round, with strong follow-on funding from previous investors SOSV’s IndieBio, TechU Ventures, ff VC and Siddhi Capital. Hanwha ranks among the largest business conglomerates in South Korea.

“Hanwha, more than any other investor, really got our unique approach and that is to understand why our senses light up when we eat meat — then create a sustainable and humane process that delivers this experience in an affordable and widely available way,” said CEO Brian Spears.

“Hanwha’s vast financial resources along with its interest in the nutrition business made it a natural choice as a financial ally and strategic partner,” said Spears. “With the backing of Hanwha and our other investors, we are well on our way to becoming the largest and most innovative meat company on Earth.”

NAM, which was founded in 2018, will use the Series A funding to double the size of its workforce, build a 20,000-square-foot pilot manufacturing facility in Alameda, Calif., and perfect the taste of its first product offering — a variety of sausage products.

It will also build out its commercial capabilities to deliver the product in the United States in 2022, pending approval from federal regulators. NAM’s production process is designed to scale up quickly to meet demand in rapidly growing markets, such as Asia.

“If the pandemic and climate change has underscored anything, it is that the world needs to find dramatically better ways to satisfy the growing demand by billions of people for protein without harming animals or further hurting the environment,” said Spears.

“We believe our hybrid products, which combine cultured meat with plant-based protein, do just that,” Spears added. “And we’re moving as quickly as possible to scale up and satisfy the growing demand for affordable meat alternatives around the world.”

Prior to this Series A round, New Age Meats raised $7 million of funding, including investment from RXBAR Founder, Peter Rahal. Other investors in the round include Losa Group, Supernode Ventures, Hemisphere Ventures, Level One Fund, Climate Capital, Deep Ventures, Mons Investments, LLC, Innovating Capital, Sand Hill Angels, Marinya Capital, Break Off Capital, Thia Ventures, Kingfisher Capital LLC, and BeniVC.

New Age Meats was founded to make better meat while improving human health, animal welfare, and the environment.