In This Issue
Dogs Trust takes centre stage with ‘Bark Yard’ garden
Pawer Water launches Puppy Advanced Formula
WildWash introduces new 500ml Magic Mud
Stylish collars and leads for adventurous dogs
Direct4Pet give tips for travelling with pets this summer
Get your own copy of Pet Trade Xtra
Burgess strengthens team with new appointments
Glowcroft joins PIF as Associate Member
Nearly 800 dogs go missing at top UK hiking spots each year
Nearly half of Brits would ditch a partner if pet disapproved
Tom Bootsma becomes co-owner of Aquaja
RVC launches biobank to improve pet cancer care
The best of last edition of Pet Trade Xtra
Popular pet shop owner puts business up for sale
Assisi Pet Care acquires dog treat brand NAW
Raw pet food firms adopt manufacturing standard
UK to build Europe's largest cultivated meat facility
Jollyes confirms Adam Dury as chief executive officer
Independent pet shops warn flea treatment reclassification will push up costs
Established aquatic and pet business for sale
Quality is biggest factor driving pet product purchases
Final tickets available for Business of Pets Conference
Frozzys launches Happy Gut Protein Bites
The Nutriment Company acquires online retailer
Rosewood Pet Products scores viral social media success
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UK to build Europe's largest cultivated meat facility

 

Cultivated meat pioneer Meatly has raised £10.4 million in Series A funding that will enable the company to build Europe’s largest cultivated meat facility.

 

Three leading European VC funds have joined the company’s existing investors to support the next phase of Meatly’s growth. These include Oyster Bay Venture Capital, a food and agtech venture capital firm backed by institutional investors; Clean Growth Fund, a specialist climate tech venture capital platform; and JamJar Investments, a consumer fund that invests in early-stage consumer companies.

 

In a vote of confidence for the sector, all three investors are bringing significant external capital to the cultivated meat industry. This latest raise builds on the £7 million in seed funding provided by founding investor, Agronomics, and Pets at Home, bringing total funding raised to date to £17.4 million.

 

Owen Ensor, CEO of Meatly, said: "This investment marks a powerful endorsement – not just of Meatly, but of Britain's foodtech and biotech sectors. Meatly has one focus – to make commercially viable cultivated meat a reality. Over the last four years, Meatly’s pioneering team has systematically focused on reducing key costs and building the strongest possible technical foundation for growth. Now we have our own industry-leading technology, and we are ready to scale.”

 

Ensor continued: “This step will allow us to prove commercial viability at scale and start to continually produce Meatly Chicken for the UK pet food market.”

 

Since launching in 2022, Meatly has solved the key technical cost challenges facing the cultivated meat industry, accelerating the path to scalable, affordable production. In 2024, Meatly announced it had reduced the cost of its chemically defined protein-free medium to an industry-leading £0.22/l, and in 2025, announced it had reduced the cost of bioreactors by ~10x. Following its regulatory authorisation in 2024, Meatly sold the world’s first cultivated pet food in 2025.

 

This new funding will enable Meatly to build a 20,000-litre bioreactor facility in London, which is the largest of its kind in Europe. Fit-out of the facility will begin immediately, with product releases expected to follow in 2027.

 

Connor Duffy, Investment Manager at Clean Growth Fund, said: “Rethinking how we produce protein is an essential part of tackling the climate crisis. We’ve invested in Meatly because they are showing it’s possible to produce real meat cost-competitively and with a fraction of the environmental impact. The team is focused on building a commercially viable path to scale, which will ultimately determine whether solutions like this can deliver meaningful change. We’re delighted to be backing Meatly as they set out to build Europe’s largest cultivated meat production facility.”

 

Elise Schumacher, Investor at Oyster Bay Venture Capital, said: “Meatly is not just building a new product - it’s laying the foundations for an entirely new protein category.

 

“Cultivated meat is emerging as one of the most sustainable and ethical ways to produce meat today. From advancing the science to early retail sales for pets, Meatly has shown a clear ability to move from concept to real-world application, with the foundations to scale across Europe and globally. Having built and grown some of the most successful food businesses ourselves, we know what it takes - and this is exactly the kind of company we like to back. Owen, Helder, and the Meatly team are doing the right things early and are primed to make a meaningful difference to both the planet and in transforming the food ecosystem for the better.”

 

Jim Mellon, Executive Chairman at Agronomics and Chairman and Founding Investor at Meatly, said: "The market opportunity for sustainable and high-quality protein is enormous, but success in this category ultimately comes down to one thing: bringing down the cost of production. The team at Meatly has consistently cracked this challenge, reducing costs by building their own bioreactors, developing their own culture medium, and staying focused on what it takes to scale.

 

“That combination of technical rigour and financial discipline is exactly what wins in this market, and that's why we founded the company and continue to support them. This approach has earned Meatly fresh capital from new investors as the company scales production, aiming to build a more resilient, secure and sustainable protein supply chain across the UK and Europe.”

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