British cell-based meat start-up CellulaREvolution receives £1.75M in funding
British biotech company CellulaREvolution, which develops cell-cultured technologies, has secured £1.75M in a recent pre-Series A round of funding.
Investors leading the round include venture capital firms Happiness Capital and Allusion One.
The company has created two unique products to tackle challenges that manufacturers in the cell-based meat industry currently face. One is the need to use animal-based foetal bovine serum (FBS) during the culturing process of cells; the other is the batch production of adherent cells, which tends to slow down the rate of overall production.
To solve these issues, CellulaREvolution has developed a foetal bovine serum-free peptide coating to encourage cell growth, as well as a novel bioreactor technology, which allows for adherent cells to proliferate continuously.
The invention of these new products will be extremely important for cultured meat manufacturers if they intend to stick to their sustainability credentials and avoid using animal growth media, such as FBS, in the production of cell-based meat and fish.
CellulaREvolution, which began as a project backed by Newcastle University, intends to use the money raised to improve research, product development, and the scaling up of their commercial department as they get ready to launch their products.
In January 2021, the company raised £1.2M in a Seed funding round, which featured investments from Northstar Ventures, the Northern Accelerator Seed Investment Fund, and CPT Capital, who are renowned for backing companies working in the protein alternatives sphere such as Beyond Meat, Eat Just, and Solar Foods.
CEO of CellulaREvolution, Leo Groenewegen, said: “We have been able to secure growth
funding from very reputable investors and are now ready to accelerate the development of
our products and our company at an increased pace. Looking forward we will be bringing ourenabling technologies to market soon, doing our part to bring high quality and affordably
cultured meat to consumer’s plate sooner rather than later!“
