Meatly will build a cultivated-meat production facility in the UK after raising £10.4m ($14.16m) in a Series A funding round.
The London-based plant will feature a 20,000-litre bioreactor and will be the “largest” facility of its type in Europe, the company said in a statement.
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Fit-out work is to begin straight away, while product releases are scheduled for next year.
Meatly, which is focused on pet food, said the new site would enable it to “continually produce” cultivated chicken.
Founded in 2022, Meatly develops cell-based products, securing regulatory clearance in the UK two years later. The company launched what it described as the world’s first cultivated pet food last year at UK specialist pet-products retailer Pets at Home.
In a statement, Owen Ensor, the CEO of Meatly, said: “Meatly has one focus: to make commercially viable cultivated meat a reality. Over the last four years, Meatly’s pioneering team has systematically focused on reducing key costs and building the strongest possible technical foundation for growth. Now we have our own industry-leading technology and we are ready to scale.”
Just Food has asked Meatly for more information on its shareholder base, its product range and its financials.
The company’s Series A round drew support from venture capital investors Oyster Bay Venture Capital, Clean Growth Fund and JamJar Investments.
The latest fundraising follows £7m in seed backing from founding investor Agronomics and Pets at Home, bringing the company’s total capital raised so far to £17.4m.
Connor Duffy, investment manager at Clean Growth Fund, said: “We’ve invested in Meatly because they are showing it’s possible to produce real meat cost-competitively and with a fraction of the environmental impact.”
