Hoxton Farms puts UK at the forefront of food-tech with strategic international hires

Hoxton Farms, the London-based biotech scale-up pioneering cultivated animal fat, has today announced two senior hires to accelerate its production timeline and drive conversations with regulators as the company navigates approvals for its first product. The new hires, arriving from leading cultivated meat companies in the USA and Israel, highlight the expansion of the meat alternatives market and the increasing prominence of the UK as a hub for food and biotech innovation.

Appointed as Head of Cell Biology, Vítor Espirito Santo (right in the picture) joins Hoxton Farms from GOOD Meat in San Francisco, California, USA, where he was Senior Director of Cellular Agriculture. GOOD Meat (a subsidiary of Eat Just) is one of the largest cellular agriculture companies in the world, with over 100 employees and having raised nearly US$270 million since its inception. At GOOD Meat, Espirito Santo led the team responsible for the world’s first regulatory approval of cultivated meat in Singapore and subsequent approval in the USA. Espirito Santo's leadership contributed to continuous improvements in animal cell lines, producing high quality meat products with progressively more cost-competitive approaches, while assuring regulatory and safety compliance. Espirito Santo has over 15 years’ experience in biomedical research, with a PhD in tissue engineering and stem cells.

Alongside Espirito Santo, Nadav Tal (left in the picture) joins Hoxton Farms from Israel to focus on bioreactor development. Nadav is an experienced hardware engineer and author of several patents and publications in the space. Previously, he was Director of R&D Engineering at Aleph Farms, a cultivated meat company based in Rehovot, Israel, which recently submitted a dossier for regulatory approval in the UK and has raised US$120 million in financing. At Aleph Farms, Tal developed proprietary tissue bioreactors specifically engineered for cellular agriculture. He previously worked at TransAlgae, where he designed novel bioreactors and established an industrial microalgae farm that is still active today. Tal has a degree in Mechanical Engineering, specialising in biomechanical design, from Ben Gurion University.

By making these strategic hires, Hoxton Farms will benefit from decades of experience across the novel foods ecosystem, from the development of cultivated products, through growing production to commercial scale and securing regulatory approval.

“Innovation around cultivated meat and fat is advancing rapidly, but lowering costs and gaining approval for these novel foods are the next areas of focus”, said Espirito Santo, incoming Head of Cell Biology at Hoxton Farms. “The combination of plant-based protein and cultivated fat is a fascinating innovation that will create huge commercial opportunities for food companies looking to provide eco-conscious and flexitarian consumers with delicious meat alternatives. I’m excited to move to London and work with an excellent team to develop Hoxton Farms’ ground-breaking R&D into new consumer products built on cultivated fat.”

These appointments follow the recent opening of Hoxton Farms’ 14,000ft2 pilot facility in the heart of East London – the UK’s first for the production of cultivated animal fat – to advance research, scale up production and develop prototypes with customers. This renewed commitment to the UK’s biotech economy provides the opportunity to grow employee headcount from 42 – including 20 nationalities and 17 PhDs – to over 100 people.

“Our recently opened pilot facility is a statement of our intent to scale up our production and bring world-class talent to the UK," commented Max Jamilly, Co-Founder of Hoxton Farms. "We’re excited to welcome Vítor and Nadav to our incredible team. They both bring unparalleled experience in the cultivated meat ecosystem, and working with them will accelerate our ability to realise our commercial goals over the coming years.”