Cultivated meat startup meatable shuts down after failing to secure new funding
Meatable, a Dutch cultivated meat startup employing about 100 people, is being dissolved after failing to secure sufficient new financing, according to its British investor Agronomics, ending a high-profile attempt to commercialize meat grown from animal cells without slaughter.
The company was founded in 2018 in Delft and later moved its operations to Leiden. Agronomics, which invested millions of euros in Meatable, said the startup faced a mix of expected and unexpected risks and uncertainties this year and was unable to obtain adequate funding from existing shareholders or new investors.
“Although this outcome is disappointing, we believe the decision has been taken responsibly and in the best interests of all stakeholders,” Agronomics CEO Jim Mellon said in a statement.
Meatable launched seven years ago with plans to bring lab-grown meat to the market as a sustainable and animal-friendly alternative to farms and slaughterhouses. The company staged the European Union’s first-ever cultivated meat tasting, which was held in 2024 in the Netherlands, but it struggled to get its food on the shelves over safety concerns.
The European Union does not yet permit the sale of lab-grown meat, prompting Meatable to focus on the Singapore market. It also intended to bring products to the United States, but has had difficulty overcoming concerns about cultivated meat.
Dutch state start-up fund Invest-NL was among Meatable’s early backers. The company announced it received 30 million euros during a fundraising round in 2023, with half of the money coming from Invest-NL.
