CBC has agreed on an R&D deal with Israel-based Biomilk to accelerate the market arrival of its cell-cultured milk products, with CBC investing $2 million in Biomilk in exchange for an allocation of shares. Under the agreement, $1 million will be invested in Biomilk on the signing of a final agreement, and the remaining $1 million in accordance with milestones.

Founded in 2018 by Dr. Nurit Argov-Argaman and Maggie Levy of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, BioMilk was set up to end the suffering of dairy cows and save the energy consumed by dairy farming. It became the first cell-cultured milk company to go public this year on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) and following the investment news, Biomilk’s share price on the TASE is up 7.75%, at NIS 5.35, with a market cap of NIS 223 million.

As part of the deal, BioMilk will transfer future products to CBC-owned Tara Dairy for pilot commercial production. Coca-Cola is not the only food and beverage giant looking towards Israel’s burgeoning cell-based scene, as Israeli cell-cultured steak pioneer Aleph Farms recently received funding from global meat companies including Thai Union and Cargill.