BRIEF: CellulaREvolution Rasies £1 Million for Scalable Cell-Based Meat Tech

CellulaREvolution is a UK-based startup working to solve two problems facing the cultivation of adherent cells for cultured meat: culture sera and available surface area.

The company recently announced in a press release that they acquired £1 million in new funding from “a set of strategic investors including CPT Capital, Stephan Schmidt, Orange Light Ventures, and funds managed by Northstar Ventures, the North East Innovation Fund supported by the European Regional Development Fund, and the newly launched Northern Accelerator Seed Investment Fund (NASIF).”

CellulaREvolution raised pre-seed funds in 2019 through a mix of non-dilutive grants and direct investments. Also the awardee of multiple Innovate UK grants, the team is contemplating further fundraising during 2021: “As a startup we are always having discussions on future funding rounds and capital requirements and we will most likely be doing additional fundraising sometime in the coming year,” CEO Leo Groenewegen told Protein Report.

With the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, fundraising has had its challenges. “It made it basically impossible to meet investors face-to-face and so a large proportion of the fundraising campaign has been conducted remotely. This has presented new opportunities but also drawbacks,” Groenewegen shared. Nevertheless, the company is satisfied with the outcome — in particular, their investment from CPT Capital, one of the leading investors in the alternative protein sector.

CellulaREvolution’s two main developments are a peptide coating that increases cell proliferation in serum-free culture media and bioreactor configurations able to continuously culture adherent cells. According to Groenewegen, “the raised funds will be used to further develop both our company and our products in general. We are now able to accelerate the development of our technologies which allows us to make faster progress, for example our bioreactor. It also allows us to recruit additional personnel and pay for the new office and laboratory space we have just moved into.”