Meatly begins construction of Europe's largest cultivated meat facility following US$14 million funding round

Meatly has begun fit-out work on a new 20,000-liter production facility in London that the company said will become Europe's largest cultivated meat facility, less than a month after securing £10.4 million (US$14 million) in Series A funding to build the site.

• Meatly began fit-out work on a new 20,000-liter cultivated meat production facility in London.
• The company previously disclosed that the site would become Europe's largest cultivated meat facility once completed.
• The facility is expected to support commercial-scale production of cultivated meat for pet food products from 2027.

The milestone marked the latest step in Meatly's scale-up plans as the company moves beyond pilot production toward commercial manufacturing of cultivated meat ingredients for the pet food market.

In a social media update, Meatly confirmed that work had officially started at the facility less than two weeks after closing its latest fundraising round.

"Fit-out work for our new pilot facility is officially underway, less than two weeks after closing our latest fundraising round," the company announced.

The company added that the facility "will become Europe's largest-ever cultivated meat facility once complete".

Further details were provided by CEO Owen Ensor, who described the significance of seeing work begin on the site.

"And we're in!" Ensor wrote on LinkedIn.

"Just two weeks after closing our latest fundraising round, we've already started fit-out work on Meatly's new pilot facility.

"It will be Europe's largest-ever cultivated meat facility once complete."

Ensor said a recent visit by employees highlighted how far the company had progressed since its founding.

"This week, the Meatly team visited the site as work got underway. Seeing the space for the first time really brought home just how far we've come – and how exciting the next chapter is going to be."

The facility was first announced in May following Meatly's £10.4 million (US$14.0 million) Series A funding round, which attracted backing from Oyster Bay Venture Capital, Clean Growth Fund and JamJar Investments. Combined with earlier investment from Agronomics and Pets at Home, the company has now raised £17.4 million (US$23.5 million).

At the time, Meatly said the funding would be used to construct the London facility and support preparations for commercial product launches in 2027.

The company has consistently emphasized production economics as a key focus area. In previous announcements, Meatly reported reducing the cost of its chemically defined protein-free culture medium to £0.22 per liter (US$0.30 per liter) and lowering bioreactor costs by around 10x.

Speaking when the funding round was announced, Ensor said the new facility would allow the company to demonstrate production at a much larger scale.

"This step will allow us to prove commercial viability at scale and start to continually produce Meatly Chicken for the UK pet food market," he said.

Meatly has taken a different route from many cultivated meat developers by focusing initially on pet food rather than human food applications. The company became Europe's first business authorized to sell cultivated meat after receiving UK regulatory clearance for cultivated pet food in 2024, before announcing sales of what it described as the world's first cultivated pet food product in 2025.

The latest construction milestone comes as cultivated meat companies increasingly focus on scaling manufacturing capacity and reducing production costs, with investors paying closer attention to commercial execution and unit economics.

Ensor previously said that success in the sector would depend on rigorous scientific and manufacturing foundations.

"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," he said following the Series A raise. "Now we have our own industry-leading technology, and we are ready to scale."

As construction progresses, Ensor said he plans to continue providing updates on the project, while thanking delivery partners including 3pm Project Management, Cast Labs, BondBryan:Fairhursts, CPC Project Services, Hive Group, Greengate Mechanical Services Ltd and Conquest Electrical Installation Services for their work on the facility.