Meatly banked €12.4M (£10.4M) in Series A funding led by Oyster Bay Venture Capital. The round saw participation from the Clean Growth Fund and JamJar, alongside existing backers. The capital injection follows the company’s recent milestone of becoming the first European business to secure regulatory approval for the sale of cultivated meat.
The London-based startup produces cultivated meat specifically for the pet food market. By using a small sample of cells from a chicken egg and growing them in a controlled environment, Meatly creates real meat without the need for intensive animal farming. The process eliminates the requirement for fetal bovine serum or other animal-derived growth media, significantly reducing the environmental footprint of pet nutrition.
This fresh funding is earmarked for the construction of a new bioreactor facility in the UK. Once operational, the plant is expected to be the largest of its kind in Europe, allowing the company to scale its production capacity to meet the demands of commercial pet food manufacturers. Meatly aims to integrate its cultivated chicken into mainstream retail products, targeting environmentally conscious pet owners.
The investment reflects a growing trend in the British FoodTech sector, where startups are increasingly focusing on specialised high-volume verticals to bypass the slower regulatory and consumer adoption curves of the human food chain.
Originally reported by Tech Funding News.