Q2 2026

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The cultivated meat sector showed contrasting momentum across funding, scale-up, regulatory progress and consolidation

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• SuperMeat (Israel) raised $6M to support the commercialisation of its cultivated chicken through a licensing model, filed for regulatory approval in Switzerland (its first target market), and extended its partnership with Micarna (subsidiary of Migros Group).
• PARIMA (France), the merger of Gourmey and Vital Meat, achieved multi-tonne-scale cultivated duck production in a single 22,000L run using Australian cultivated meat startup Vow's bioreactor, and reported a path to production costs below €10/kg.
• Aleph Farms (Israel) is seeking new funding while cutting jobs and shifting to an outsourcing-based operating model to lower costs.
• UPSIDE Foods (US) submitted a $50M bid to acquire the US assets of distressed Israeli cultivated meat startup Believer Meats, including its production facility.

Comment: the cultivated meat sector continues to achieve technical and regulatory milestones, but commercial viability still depends on lowering costs, securing funding and consolidating manufacturing capacity.

Q1 + April 2026

Q4 2025

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Recent regulatory updates: Mid-October 2025 → Mid-January 2026

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• Parima (France): Regulatory approval in Singapore for its cultivated chicken, becoming the first European company cleared to sell cultivated meat globally.

Q3 2025

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Funding pressures trigger bankruptcies, mergers, and asset sales across alternative protein startups

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Two US-based startups both leveraging fermentation for protein production, have shut down and are seeking buyers for their technologies and assets:

• NovoNutrients, which used biomass fermentation to convert CO₂ emissions into proteins for food and feed and raised $21M, entered an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors (a bankruptcy alternative) and is selling its IP, microbial strains, and brands Novotein and Novoceuticals.
• Planetarians, which used fermentation to upcycle spent brewers’ yeast and by-products into clean-label meat alternatives, is auctioning its technology, patents, equipment, and pilot facility, framing the move as a strategic transition rather than liquidation.

Comment: the current situation (see here for the detailed state of FoodTech funding) is complicated, leading to many bankruptcies. This also affects leaders such as Beyond Meat or Oatly which still can’t reach profitability. There are event strong rumours that the former could be on the verge of bankruptcy.

Cashless acquisitions and technology transfers are reshaping the cultivated meat landscape:

• Gourmey, a French startup developing cultivated foie gras, acquired Vital Meat (by Groupe Grimaud), a fellow startup producing cultivated chicken, merging under a new entity named Parima to accelerate scale-up and commercialisation.
  • The merger combines Gourmey’s full-stack production with Vital Meat’s 2,000-litre bioreactor capacity and avian cell lines, uniting nine regulatory applications and over 70 patents.
• Meatable, a Dutch startup, acquired the cultivated meat platform of UK-based Uncommon Bio, which is pivoting to therapeutics, gaining technology, IP assets, cell lines, and staff for an undisclosed amount.
  • The acquisition enables Meatable to diversify into non-GMO product lines, accelerate development beyond pork and beef into chicken, lamb, and high-flavour breeds, and pursue faster regulatory approval.
• The Good Food Institute (GFI) acquired eight bovine cell lines and two serum-free media formulations from the defunct US-based startup SciFi Foods, and partnered with Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture to make them publicly available through an open-access cell bank.
  • It aims to accelerate innovation and reduce entry barriers for startups and academic groups developing cultivated meat.

Q2 2025

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Cultivated meat startups achieve major cost reductions

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• Clever Carnivore, a US-based startup producing pork through cellular agriculture, achieved a media production cost of $0.07 per litre at pilot scale, targeting profitability for its planned 40,000-litre demo plant.
  • It is currently raising $7M to fund its demo facility, pursue FDA regulatory approval, and scale bioreactors for US market entry by 2026.
• Meatly, a UK-based cultivated pet food startup, cut food-grade culture medium costs to $0.30/L, projecting $0.02/L at industrial scale, and developed a custom bioreactor that is reportedly 95% cheaper than traditional fermenters.
  • It is seeking funding to scale production in a low-cost industrial facility, aiming to reach price parity with conventional chicken.
• Gourmey, a French cellular agriculture startup, shared the results of an independent analysis of its cost structure and claims it could achieve €7/kg at commercial scale.
  • It says it can produce 1,700 tonnes annually per facility with capital expenditure under €35M without relying on large-scale new facilities or super-large bioreactors.
  • Gourmey also announced a partnership with French startup DeepLife to develop the world’s first avian digital twin, an AI model of poultry cells that speeds up R&D by optimising growth, media, yield, and quality while lowering costs and targeting price parity in cultivated meat.

Comment: this is the first time that we have startups communicating on prices that make sense from a commercial point of view. Also, the focus on small to medium-scale bioreactors and facilities is something quite new in the cultivated meat industry (far from the €100M+ mega facilities that were considered only a couple of years ago). As both companies are probably currently seeking funding, we will have shortly an answer on whether this two items can convince investors and are enough to improve cellular agriculture’s prospects.

**Green Queen Meatly & Gourmey & AgFunderNews**