Why Microbial Protein Keeps Failing at Scale, and What Researchers Say Has to Change
A paper published this week in Nature Communications by researchers at Imperial College London makes the case that the microbial protein sector’s repeated commercial failures are not primarily a technology problem, and that resolving them will require coordinated action on consumer psychology, regulation, and market infrastructure simultaneously. The paper, co-authored by Rima Gnaim, Hakimi Kassim, Lisa Neidhardt, Thomas Gassler, and Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro, traces a pattern stretching back decades: technically viable …
Construction Begins on Meatly’s London Facility, Set to Be Europe’s Largest Cultivated Meat Site
UK cultivated meat company Meatly has begun fit-out work on a new pilot facility in London, less than two weeks after closing its £10.4 million Series A round. Once complete, the site is expected to house 20,000 litres of bioreactor capacity, which the company says would make it the largest cultivated meat facility in Europe. CEO Owen Ensor confirmed the start of construction via LinkedIn, writing: “Just two weeks after …
Sun Bear Biofuture Completes £25,000 Pilot Plant for Yeast-Derived Cocoa Butter Alternative
Oxford-based biotech startup Sun Bear Biofuture has completed its first production run using a custom-built pilot plant designed to manufacture a cocoa butter alternative via yeast fermentation, at a setup cost of £25,000 — a fraction of the £350,000 to £1 million typically required for conventional precision fermentation facilities. A low-cost route to scale The pilot plant, which is automated and end-to-end, has production capacity for dozens of kilograms per …
Tate & Lyle Expands BioHarvest Deal to Develop Plant Cell-Cultivated Sweetener Range
Ingredient solutions company Tate & Lyle and Canadian biotech firm BioHarvest Sciences have expanded their joint development program to cover a broader range of plant-based sweetener molecules, building on an initial agreement signed in 2024. The enlarged program draws on BioHarvest’s Botanical Synthesis platform, a non-GMO industrial plant cell culture technology that produces plant-derived compounds without cultivating the whole plant, reducing dependence on conventional agricultural extraction for botanicals that are …
Agronomics Backs SuperMeat With $5M as Cultivated Chicken Push Targets Switzerland
London-listed investment company Agronomics has led a US$6 million initial closing of a Series A-4 round in Israeli cultivated meat company SuperMeat, contributing US$5 million of that total through the issue of new Agronomics shares rather than cash. Affiliated entity New Agrarian Company provided the remaining US$1 million in cash, with Milk & Honey Ventures and existing investors also participating. The round is targeting a total of US$10 million. The …
Meatly Secures £10.4M Series A for 20,000-Litre Cultivated Meat Plant in London
UK cultivated meat company Meatly has closed a £10.4 million Series A round to fund construction of a 20,000-litre bioreactor facility in London, which would become the largest cultivated meat production site in Europe. Fit-out begins immediately, with product releases expected in 2027. The round brings total funding raised to £17.4 million, building on £7 million in seed capital from founding investor Agronomics and Pets at Home. Three new institutional …
MicroHarvest Expands European Pet Food Presence With 15 Products Due by Mid-2026
Hamburg-based MicroHarvest has confirmed more than 15 new pet food product launches scheduled for Q2 2026, as its fermentation-derived protein ingredient gains commercial traction across Germany and the UK. The company produces protein through biomass fermentation, feeding microbes on regional agri-food side streams in a 24-hour production cycle. The resulting ingredient is positioned as a low-carbon, hypoallergenic alternative to conventional meat proteins for cats and dogs, and is already on …
Clean Food Group Raises £4.5M to Bring “World’s Largest” Yeast-Oil Facility to Full Capacity
UK biotech manufacturer Clean Food Group (CFG) has raised £4.5 million in a funding round led by Clean Growth Fund and new investor New Agrarian, with the capital earmarked for scaling its fermentation facility in Knowsley, Liverpool. The company has also received a £700,000 non-dilutive grant from Innovate UK. The Knowsley site, which CFG acquired in September 2025, holds one million litres of fermentation capacity and is positioned as what …
Aleph Farms and Roslin Technologies Demonstrate Cross-Platform Compatibility for Cell Cultivation
Aleph Farms, a cellular agriculture company developing a scalable biomanufacturing platform for the food and broader bio-based industries, announced the successful completion of the first phase of a collaboration with UK-based biotechnology company Roslin Technologies, a leading developer of advanced animal cell lines for cellular agriculture applications. “This milestone demonstrates, for the first time, that cells developed by an external organization can grow successfully using Aleph Farms’ proprietary growth medium, …
Nurasa Integrates New Wave Biotech’s Simulation Software to Advance AI-Driven Biomanufacturing Scale-Up
UK-based software company New Wave Biotech has entered into a commercial partnership with Singapore’s Nurasa to integrate AI-driven bioprocess simulation into the latter’s food innovation infrastructure. The collaboration is intended to provide earlier-stage companies with tools to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of scaling precision fermentation and other biomanufacturing processes. Virtual testing before physical investment Under the agreement, companies within Nurasa’s network will gain access to New Wave Biotech’s …