REHOVOT, ISRAEL — Cultivated meat producer Aleph Farms has moved into its new headquarters in Israel, a transition that will increase the company’s operations sixfold.

The 65,000-square-foot facility will allow Aleph Farms to launch a pilot scale production plant, build a new R&D center and open a community center showcasing the ethos behind cell-based meat.  

The new headquarters will help Aleph Farms prepare for a busy year ahead as it works toward commercialization of its first product, a thin cut beef steak. Transitioning to the pilot production facility will bolster the company’s efforts to gain regulatory approval for cultivated steak while optimizing processes toward its larger scale production facilities, which are set to be built between 2022 and 2024.

“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,” said Eyal Rivlin, vice president of production and operations at Aleph Farms. “We’ve worked hard to get here, and it is exciting to see the infrastructure that will help bring our vision to life.”

Located in Rehovot, Israel’s biotechnology hub, the facility lays the foundation for a new department called Aleph Frontiers, an innovation incubator that will serve as a pipeline for new products. Neta Lavon, PhD, vice president of R&D and newly appointed chief technology officer at Aleph Farms, will lead the platform for different types of cell-cultured products as head of the Frontiers department.