Innocent Meat secures fresh funding to advance cultivated meat production technology

The German biotechnology company Innocent Meat secured €6 million (US$6.6 million) in a recent funding round (announced 19 December 2025) to further develop its cultivated meat production technology and advance plans for a first demonstration facility.

• Innocent Meat raised €6 million (US$6.6 million) to support technology development and scale-up.

• The funding was allocated to a demonstration facility, growth factor production, and regulatory preparation.

• The company planned to enter the market in 2028 with an automated production system for meat processors.

Based in Rostock, Innocent Meat works on an automated manufacturing process for cultivated meat that covers the entire production chain, from cell input and proliferation to differentiation and conversion into meat products. The company was founded in 2020 by Laura Gertenbach and Patrick Inomoto.

The company developed a production system intended for deployment directly by meat processors. The approach relied largely on established, commercially available industrial equipment combined with software-based process control, rather than bespoke machinery.

According to the company, the production process was designed to operate with a high level of automation. Customers would be able to run cultivated meat manufacturing systems without building dedicated research and development teams or maintaining extensive in-house expertise.

The newly raised capital was earmarked for several priorities. These included the construction of a demonstration plant for potential customers, the development of scalable production infrastructure for growth factors, and preparation for regulatory approvals in initial target markets.

Laura Gertenbach, Chief Executive Officer of Innocent Meat, said the funding enabled the company to move into the next phase of development.

“We are pleased with the trust and strategic foresight shown by our investors,” Gertenbach said. “With this financing and additional public funding, we will be able to build our first demonstration facility for potential customers, develop scalable production infrastructure for our growth factors, and secure regulatory approvals in our initial target markets. We are planning market entry in 2028.”

The funding round included continued backing from GENIUS Venture Capital, which managed investments on behalf of Venture Capital Fonds MV GmbH. The regional fund was supported by the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund.

Uwe Bräuer, Managing Director of GENIUS Venture Capital, said the firm had supported Innocent Meat at an early stage with both capital and operational input.

“We supported Innocent Meat early on with capital and know-how,” Bräuer said. “The growing interest from investors and meat processing companies in new technologies is encouraging and confirms our original investment decision.”

Bräuer also highlighted structural challenges for early-stage companies developing capital-intensive technologies. He said young companies working on disruptive innovations required substantial financial support during their early phases and called for regional funding structures to better reflect the needs of deep-tech startups.

Innocent Meat focused on developing manufacturing systems rather than producing branded consumer products. The company said its technology would allow meat processors to supplement or gradually replace conventional products with cultivated meat without establishing separate research operations.

The production systems were expected to rely primarily on existing industrial equipment, which the company said reduced development risk and supported faster deployment. Software was intended to manage and automate the production process at customer sites.

The funding round came as cultivated meat companies across Europe continued to refine their scale-up strategies amid a challenging investment environment and evolving regulatory pathways. No cultivated meat products had yet received approval for sale in the European Union, and several companies were focusing on pilot-scale and demonstration facilities in preparation for future commercialization.

Innocent Meat said it planned to enter the market in 2028, subject to regulatory approval in its target markets. The company did not disclose which markets it would prioritize.

Founded in 2020, Innocent Meat continued to concentrate on automated, industrial-scale manufacturing solutions for cultivated meat. The company said its business-to-business approach was intended to support integration into existing meat processing operations as regulatory and commercial frameworks developed.