4 Successful Women Foodpreneurs Innovating China's Plant-based Meat Landscape

By: WE Staff

Carrie Chan: Avant Meats

Carrie Chan, an architect and biotech CEO, co-founded Avant Meats in 2018 with Dr. Mario Chin, Asia's first cell-cultivated fish company. Inspired by her nutrition and environment-conscious vegan lifestyle, Carrie recognized that ocean ecosystems are in peril due to overfishing and climate stress. Their mission is to grow real fish, including fillets and fish maw, directly from fish cells in a lab, bypassing overfishing and unsustainable aquaculture.

Avant Meats prioritizes seafood over terrestrial meat, producing prototypes of high-end fish maw and fillets using plant-based scaffolds. The company has raised nearly $14 million, including a $10.8 million Series A, attracting global investors. Production costs have plummeted from $900/pound to around $70, with luxury fish maw fetching up to $470 per dish in Michelin-starred restaurants. Avant Meats is also expanding into marine collagen powders, aiming to reduce wildlife exploitation, ocean pollution, and reliance on antibiotics.