MrBeast features UPSIDE Foods in new video

Image: Uma Valeti on LinkedIn

Meat

YouTube Star MrBeast Visits UPSIDE Foods in New Video With Over 60M Views

MrBeast, a YouTuber with 464 million subscribers, recently paid a visit to California-based cultivated meat producer UPSIDE Foods. UPSIDE appears in a new MrBeast video titled “$1 vs $1,000,000,000 Futuristic Tech!” The video discusses various revolutionary new technologies, including cultivated meat, and has over 60 million views at the time of writing. Viewers can watch as Jimmy Donaldson, the creator behind MrBeast, tours UPSIDE Foods to learn how cultivated chicken …

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Seafood

Revo Foods Applies 3D Structuring Tech to Cultivated Fish in Partnership with Atlantic Fish Co

Atlantic Fish Co and Revo Foods have entered a collaboration to develop hybrid seafood products that combine cultivated whitefish cells with mycoprotein-based structuring technology. The two companies are testing whether mycoprotein matrices can be used as a scalable platform to support cultivated cell integration for whole-cut seafood formats. Atlantic Fish Co, based in North Carolina, has developed proprietary whitefish cell lines and tissue engineering processes. Austrian startup Revo Foods contributes …

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Company News

UPSIDE Foods Launches New Spinoff Lucius Labs to Commercialize Cell Culture Media

US cultivated meat company UPSIDE Foods has recently launched a spinoff called Lucius Labs. As first reported by AgFunderNews, the new company will create cell culture media for the life sciences industry. In a LinkedIn post, Bob Newman, Chief Scientific Officer at UPSIDE Foods, explained that the company had “developed deep expertise in cell culture media based on extensive work in cultivated meat”. Consequently, UPSIDE has decided to sell cell …

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Etan Bendheim & Mark Warner

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Company News

Liberation Bioindustries Restructures Leadership as Indiana Facility Nears Completion

Liberation Bioindustries has restructured its executive team, with co-founder Etan Bendheim stepping into the role of Chief Executive Officer, while fellow co-founder Mark Warner transitions to Chief Technology Officer. The change comes as the company approaches the operational launch of its first commercial-scale precision fermentation plant in Richmond, Indiana. Technical focus takes priority Warner, who previously served as CEO, will now focus on technical execution and infrastructure development. “This transition …

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Founders Wildtype

Justin Kolbeck and Aryé Elfenbein - ©Wildtype

Politics & Law

Wildtype and UPSIDE Foods Gain Early Win in Lawsuit Against Texas’ Cultivated Meat Ban

A federal judge has denied the State of Texas’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Texas’s ban on the sale of cultivated meat. The lawsuit has been brought by public interest law firm the Institute for Justice, on behalf of Californian cultivated meat and seafood companies UPSIDE Foods and Wildtype. US District Judge Alan Albright held that the plaintiffs’ dormant Commerce Clause claim may proceed. However, he denied the companies’ …

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Maia Farms

Gavin Schneider. © Maia Farms

Investments & Finance

Maia Farms Raises $2.7M in Oversubscribed Funding Round to Scale Mushroom & Mycelium-Based Ingredients

Maia Farms, a Canadian food tech company developing mushroom and mycelium-based ingredients, has secured $3.75 million CAD ($2.7 million USD) in an oversubscribed seed equity round. The round was led by Active Impact Investments, with follow-on investments from Nya Planet, Ag-West Bio, PIC Investment Group, and Deep Checks. Maia Farms previously announced strategic and non-dilutive support from Genome BC, Natural Products Canada, Protein Industries Canada, and the National Research Council …

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stock virginia courthouse

Image: Kelly on Pexels

Politics & Law

Virginia Lawmakers Consider Labeling Bill for Plant-Based and Lab-Grown Meat Alternatives

The Virginia General Assembly is currently reviewing proposed legislation that would impose specific labeling requirements on plant-based, cell-cultured, and other non-traditional meat products. Senate Bill 186, introduced by Senator Angelia Williams Graves (D–District 21), seeks to define and regulate what it terms “misbranded” meat and poultry products. Under the proposed bill, any food item marketed as a meat or poultry product but containing a “manufactured-protein food product,” a category encompassing …

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Ambrosia Collective to launch protein powder made from Solar Foods protein

© Solar Foods

Protein

Ambrosia Collective to Launch Protein Powder Made From Solar Foods’ Air-Based Protein in the US

Solar Foods, the Finnish producer of air-based protein, has received an order from US-based sports nutrition and health supplement brand Ambrosia Collective. Ambrosia plans to launch a ready-to-mix protein powder made from Solar Foods’ Solein® protein in the US. The product will be sold under Ambrosia’s Planta brand, and will be one of the first Solein-powered protein powder products available to consumers anywhere in the world. Ambrosia develops and produces …

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Aqua Cultured's tuna chopped in a bowl

Image courtesy of Aqua Cultured Foods

Company News

Aqua Cultured Foods Shuts Down After Five Years Developing Fermented Seafood Alternatives

Chicago-based startup Aqua Cultured Foods has officially shut down operations, marking the end of a five-year effort to commercialize whole-cut seafood alternatives produced through biomass fermentation. Co-founded in 2020 by Brittany Chibe and Anne Shaeffer, Aqua developed a proprietary fermentation process that converted cellulose into high-fidelity, fish-free seafood analogs. The startup focused on producing raw-style filets intended to replicate tuna and scallops in appearance and texture, targeting both fine dining …

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US-based cultivated seafood company BlueNalu has raised $33.5 million to scale its cultivated toro platform.

© BlueNalu

Investments & Finance

BlueNalu Secures $11M in Financing to Advance Commercialization of Cultivated Bluefin Tuna Toro

BlueNalu, a US-based producer of cultivated seafood, has announced new convertible note and preferred stock financings. The round was led by Agronomics, Siddhi Capital, and Lewis & Clark AgriFood, with participation from around 40 other existing investors. Through the insider-led financing, BlueNalu has secured approximately $11 million in cash and stock proceeds. The capital will be used to support the market entry of BlueNalu’s cultivated bluefin tuna toro, once this …

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