Israel-based company Meat-Tech 3D has reached an agreement to acquire 100% share capital of Peace of Meat, a Belgian producer of cultured avian products.

Peace of Meat created a stem-cell-based bioreactor technology to cultivate animal fats from chicken and ducks, without harming animals.

Meat-Tech will source the cells from Peace of Meat to produce fake meat.

Meat-Tech 3D CEO Sharon Fima said: “Meat-Tech’s novel technology for producing meat using 3D printing is gaining increasing international recognition. Boosted by our acquisition strategy, we believe we can turn Meat-Tech into a leading global centre and home for innovative and groundbreaking cell-based food solutions that are both healthy and environmentally friendly.”

Under the agreement, the Israeli 3D meat printing company will pay €15m ($18m) for the Belgian firm.

The company will fund the deal through a combination of cash and Meat-Tech ordinary shares.

Meat-Tech noted that it will pay half of the consideration immediately, while the remaining payment is subject to Peace of Meat achieving preset technological milestones over two years.

The Israeli company intends to use Peace of Meat’s technologies, including through novel hybrid food products, to accelerate its market entry.

Meat-Tech expects that the first hybrid products based on Peace of Meat technology could be available the market as early as 2022.

Peace of Meat co-founders David Brandes and Dirk von Heinrichshorst said: “Peace of Meat has developed a powerful system for upscaled cultured biomass production and together with Meat-Tech we intend to accelerate product development toward commercialisation.

“While Peace of Meat’s core activity remains focused on the production of tasty, cultured fat as a B2B ingredient for meat alternatives, we see tremendous opportunity in jointly building a leading food-tech enterprise with Meat-Tech, based on a cellular platform.”

The acquisition comes barely months after Meat-Tech 3D invested $1.18m in Peace of Meat.