‘Meat from animal cells’ pioneer raises $30m to target $427bn market
Uncommon – a Cambridge startup manufacturing meat from animal cells – has raised $30 million Series A scale-up funding.
The company, formerly called Higher Steaks, moved its HQ to Cambridge from Bristol in 2020.
Utilising RNA technologies, Uncommon is paving the way for scalable cultivated meat, creating safer and healthier products that the company describes as delicious.
The Series A was led by Balderton Capital and Lowercarbon with participation from Red Alpine, East Alpha and previous investors Max and Sam Altman, Miray Zaki and Sebastiano Castiglioni.
Founded by Benjamina Bollag and Dr Ruth Faram, Uncommon leverages RNA – the molecule that contains the chemical instructions that direct cells’ natural machinery into making a protein – to create cultivated bacon and pork belly from animal cells.
The founders claim the approach enables the company to more quickly reach price parity with conventional meat, scale faster and create safer, healthier products without the use of gene editing – opening up a much wider global market than its competitors.
CEO Bollag said: “From a young age, I have always been aware of how diets and food choices can have a disproportionate impact on our health. This led me to found Uncommon, a biocreation company that uses the power of cells to tackle the most pressing challenges to our health, starting with cultivated pork.”
Uncommon's transformative approach to cellular agriculture promises to radically accelerate the availability of cultured meat. Extensive research, based on Nobel Prize-winning findings and pioneering biomimicry, utilises exceptional insights to build complex proteins and fats that are packed full of authentic flavour and nutritional benefits, Bollag says.
She says the technology does away with the need for antibiotics, animal products or toxic small molecules and drastically reduces the raw materials needed for alternative protein production.
“As the only cultivated meat leveraging RNA technologies, we believe we have a competitive advantage that could help us become the largest protein company in the world,” Bollag added.
“I’m delighted with the progress we’ve made so far as a company and look forward to working closely with our new and existing investors to continue to build on this progress and make a difference to global health.”
The cultivated meat sector is expected to reach $427 billion in value by 2040.
Uncommon says the funding will be used to continue to bring the cost of goods down, apply for regulatory approval, and scale up production at its pilot manufacturing facility at Cambridge Technopark, whilst doubling the team over the next 18 months to further expand the company's capabilities.
