Lab-grown meat companies, or cultured meat companies, are considered some of the hottest start-ups around today. It’s an industry that could revolutionize the world.
Since the first lab-grown meat burger was created in 2013 for $325,000, the industry has continuously been driving down costs leading to further investments and the potential for market success. Now, several companies have gained regulatory approval around the world.
Here’s a list of companies manufacturing, or researching, lab-grown meat in 2024:
What Lab-Grown Meat Companies Are There?
This is a comprehensive list of all the start-ups and companies currently involved in lab-grown meat. Note that there are believed to be additional companies not listed here, but they need more credibility or any critical information to back up their claims.
Aleph Farms - Israel
- Beef Steaks
- AlephFarms produced the first-cell-grown beef steak in December 2018.
- It became the first company to receive approval to sell steaks in Israel in 2024.
- Raised $12 in Series A funding led by VisVires New Protein.
- Grew the first piece of cell-based meat in outer space.
- In 2021, actor Leonardo DiCaprio revealed he’d funded Alepha Farms (and Mosa Meat) for an undisclosed fee, believing “One of the most impactful ways to combat the climate crisis is to transform our food system. Aleph Farms offer new ways to satisfy the world’s demand for beef, while solving some of the most pressing issues of current industrial beef production.”
SciFi Foods - United Stat
- Beef
- Previously known as ‘Artemys’.
- Believes it will be the first company to bring cultivated beef to the US market.
- Raised $22m in a series A funding round.
Avant Meats - Hong Kong
- Fish
- Avant meats create high-end luxury lab-grown fish.
- It showcased the first-ever cell-based fish maw product (aka dried swim bladder) in 2019 and has allowed the public to taste it.
- It believes it is breaking away from the damaging sides of fishing, such as microplastics.
- Avant Meats aims to bring cultured fish to dining tables around the world by 2030.
BioCraft Pet Nutrition - Delaware, US
- Pet food
- Previously known as Because Animals.
- BioCraft created the first lab-grown meat pet food with a growth serum/growing process that doesn’t include FBS and unfermented cultured products.
- Their lab-grown meat pet food is planned for release in 2021.
- Has a subsidiary company, BioCraft Pet Nutrition GmbH, in Austria.
Bene Meat - Czech
- Lab-grown meat technology.
- Bene Meat Technologies is a Czech start-up focused on the research and development of the technology for cultivated meat on an industrial scale.
- They believe their tech can help cultured meat for pets be available in 3-10 years.
Believer (Future Meat Technologies) - Israel
- Various types of meat
- Formerly known as Future Meat Technologies (FMT).
- Believer is one of the only lab-grown meat companies that assert their meat is grown using bioreactors.
- This scalable method of lab-grown meat production allows cells to double in mass every day, with production lasting just two weeks.
- In January 2023, it announced plans for its first commercial-scale cultivated meat production plant in Chicago.
Biftek - Ankara, Turkey
- Beef
- Named after the Turkish word for ‘Beef Steak,’ Biftek focuses on creating a replacement serum for FBS.
- Their plant-based version of lab-grown meat comprises 44 proteins of myosatellite cells and “will decrease expenses dramatically.”
- Believes they can help make 8B tonnes of CO2 redundant.
BioBQ - Texas, United States
- Beef
- BioBQ aims to be the first producer in the world of cultured 100% beef brisket.
BlueNalu - San Diego, California, US
- Seafood
- The rapidly progressing BlueNalu creates seafood lab-grown meat to reduce conventional fishing and plastics in the ocean and our meals.
- It has raised over $84 million.
- It creates cell-based yellowfish, which is said to cook as well as the real thing.
- Its other production goals include tuna, amberjack and red snapper.
- Its mission is to be the “global leader in cellular aquaculture, providing consumers with great tasting, healthy, safe and trusted cell-based seafood products that support the sustainability and diversity of our ocean.”.
- With impressive plans to produce 18 million lbs of seafood every year from 2025, Blue Nalu is the founding member of the ‘Alliance for Meat, Poultry and Seafood innovation”.
BioTech Foods - Spain
- Pork
- Founded in 2017, BioTech Foods is a leading company in the cultivated meat field.
- Its motivation is to create a more sustainable world.
Bond Pet Foods - Boulder, Colorado, US
- Chicken for pets
- Bond Pets Food creates snappable, protein-packed, animal-free treat bars for dogs.
- Although not an anti-meat company, it aims to bring “sustainable, responsible, nutritious” foods that protect the planet and animals.
Cell Ag Tech - Malaysia
- Beef
- Cell Ag Tech aims to have its factory ready to produce cultivated meat at the end of 2024.
- Its goal is to produce lab-grown meat at a cost of less than $10 USD per KG.
CellX - China
- Seafood, Chicken, Wagyu Beef
- CellX aims to have cost-parity with conventionally sourced pork by 2025.
- Believes it can reduce freshwater usage by 70% and land resource consumption by 80%.
- Is China’s most funded lab-grown meat start-up, with over $20m in Series-A funding.
Clear Meat - India
- Chicken
- Clear Meat has a bold vision of becoming “the world’s largest producer of safe and sustainable meat with the lowest carbon footprint.”
- India’s first ISO-certified cultured meat start-up.
- Aims to release its ‘EcoMeat’ product in 2024.
Cubiq Foods - Spain
- Lab-grown animal fat
- Cubiq Foods is one of only a few lab-grown meat companies developing lab-grown fat, which for many critics, is essential for a “true” meaty taste.
- Uniquely, they use embryonic stem cells that divide indefinitely.
- Its ‘GoGreat’ fat aims to make lab-grown meat tastier.
Finless Foods - California, US
- Fish
- Finless Foods was the first company to create lab-grown fish back in 2017.
- It focuses on growing blue-fin tuna from “immortal” cell lines - which will rule out the need to collect future fish samples.
- Finless Foods knows how to grow muscle, fat and connective tissue from blue-fin tuna and is one of the true lab-grown fish innovators.
- Has a total funding of $48 million.
Fork and Good - US
- Pork
- The Washington Post said, “It could have been 100 percent pork; I couldn’t tell the difference”
- Co-founder Gabor Forgacs was one of the first innovators of cultured meat technology.
Forsea Foods - Israel
- Seafood
- Focuses on cultivating the meat of fish from the IUCN red list of threatened species.
- Its primary focus is lab-grown eel meat.
Gaia Foods - Singapore
- Red meat
- Southeast Asia’s first biotech company focused on producing lab-grown red meat catered to Asian consumers.
GOOD Meat (Eat Just) - California, US
- Chicken
- GOOD Meat’s cultured chicken was approved for sale in the U.S. in July 2023 - with approval by the FDA and the USDA (making it the very first to gain approval, alongside UPSIDE Foods).
- Famous for its alternative to traditional egg, Eat Just’s GOOD Meat is aiming to change the way we eat meat.
Gourmey - France
- Foie Gras and poultry
- Gourmey is a Paris-based start-up with €48m in funding.
- Plans to be Europe’s largest cultivated meat lab.
Uncommon Bio - United Kingdom
- Pork
- Previously known as ‘Higher Meats’.
- Uncommon filed a patent on its proprietary technology.
- Created the world’s first pork belly and bacon with cultivated muscle.
- Raised around £5 million in funding.
Hoxton Farms - United Kingdom
- Fat
- Hoxton Farms aims to create cultured fats, crucial to the flavouring of lab-grown meat.
- Raised $22 million in Series A funding.
IntegriCulture, Inc. - Japan
- Foie Gras and technology
- With ￥100,000,000 (around $680m USD) in capital, IntegriCulture has the potential to be a huge player in the lab-grown meat industry.
- Produced the world’s first cultured Fois Gras without any serum or growth factor.
- Its CulNet® system aims to be a revolutionary technology to allow the culturing of cells of any type, without the addition of external growth factors.
- Perhaps most interestingly, is their project ‘SpaceSalt’ - a product that will allow the public to grow their meat at home.
Meatable -Netherlands
- Beef, chicken and pork
- Meatable is an interesting lab-grown meat company as they use pluripotent stem cells (no need for a growth serum), using an animal’s umbilical cord.
- This is unusual for most lab-grown meat companies as the cells are harder to control.
- The process means they don’t need to kill a cow and can direct the stem cell growth into any cells!
- Meatable plans to allow the public to taste their pork sausages very soon.
Steakholder Foods - Israel & Belgium
- Foie Gras
- Previously known as ‘MeaTech’
- The only Lab-Grown meat company listed on the stock exchange as of 2024.
- Steakholder Foods develops 3D bioprinting technologies for lab-grown use production.
- The company reports it can produce 700 grams of 100% cell-based chicken fat per production run.
- These technologies will likely prove crucial in the commercial success of the industry.
Mewery - Czech
- Pork
- Mewery is the first European startup cultivating pork meat on a proprietary microalgae base
- It plans to have its meats in high-end restaurants from 2025.
Mirari Foods - Switzerland
- Beef Steaks
- Mirari Foods’ TEND’R STEAK uses only natural non-GMO cells.
- Partnered with Shiok Meats and Gaia Foods to accelerate their progress in Singapore.
Mission Barns - California, US
- Fat (including duck, pork and chicken)
- Mission Barns’ trademarked, Mission Fat™, aims to provide sustainable fats for flavoring lab-grown meats.
Mosa Meat - Netherlands
- Beef
- C-Corp certified
- Founder Dr. Mark Post took lab-grown meat to the mainstream media when he produced the first-ever burger made from cultured cells in 2013.
- His $325,000 burger was the trigger for the industry’s rapid growth.
- Mosa Meat has since eliminated FBS from its burgers and added myoglobin for color and fat tissue for improved texture.
Primeval Foods - UK and US
- Bushmeat
- Primeval Foods takes the idea of non-slaughter meat to an interesting new level, by exploring cellular meat cultivation of the likes of lions, zebras and tigers.
- No products have been taste-tested.
Shiok Meats - Singapore
- Crab, Lobster and Shrimp
- Owner of Gaia Foods (red meats)
- Shiok Meats is the world’s first cultivated crustacean meat company and Southeast Asia’s first cultivated seafood company.
- Raised around $30 million in funding.
SuperMeat - Israel
- Poultry
- A crowd-funded company.
- SuperMeat partnered with the PHW Group, one of Europe’s largest poultry producers;
- Also partnered with Migros, Switzerland’s largest supermarket and meat manufacturer.
Upside Foods - San Francisco, U.S
- Various types of meat
- Previously named ‘Memphis Meats’, Upside Foods is a huge name to watch out for in the lab-grown meat sector.
- The FDA deemed that Upside Foods’ lab-grown chicken meat is safe to eat - making it the first of two to gain U.S. approval.
- In July 2023, Upside put food on the plates of the Michelin-starred Bar Crenn in San Francisco.
- Upside Foods has raised funding, including from Bill Gates, Kimbal Musk and Richard Branson.
Vow - Australia
- Various types of meat
- Founded in 2019, Vow was the first to make a lab-grown kangaroo dumpling.
- It has since produced samples of pork, lamb, alpaca, rabbit and goat.
- Received $73 million in Series A funding.
Wildtype Foods - San Francisco, U.S
- Seafood
- Wildtype Foods’ pilot plant, opened in 2021, is capable of producing up to 200,000 pounds (90,718 kilograms) of salmon per year.
- Their ‘sushi-grade’ salmon is aimed at creating a sustainable solution to the fishing industry.
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