Meatly targets 2027 production at new London cultivated meat facility

Meatly has relocated to Imperial College London’s Grapht Works manufacturing site in North Acton as it prepares to begin production in 2027 at what the company describes as Europe’s largest cultivated meat facility.

• Meatly has relocated to Grapht Works in North Acton ahead of planned production runs in 2027.
• The company’s £10.4 million (US$14 million) Series A backed plans for a 20,000-liter cultivated meat facility in London.
• The move follows UK regulatory authorization in 2024 and the first retail sales of pet food containing Meatly’s cultivated chicken in 2025.

The relocation follows Meatly’s £10.4 million (US$14 million) Series A funding round announced in May, which financed plans for a 20,000-liter bioreactor facility. The company subsequently confirmed that fit-out work had begun, with commercial product releases expected in 2027.

“Moving to Grapht Works is a significant step as we prepare to scale cultivated meat and become fully operational next year,” said Owen Ensor, CEO of Meatly. “We will be creating Europe’s largest cultivated meat facility and begin the move to large scale production.”

Grapht Works is London’s first dedicated facility for pilot and demonstration manufacturing, established to accommodate science and technology businesses moving from research into production. It provides flexible industrial space where companies can develop, test and scale manufacturing processes.

The site forms part of Imperial’s Old Oak Innovation Cluster within WestTech London. For Meatly, it provides a manufacturing base for the next stage of its cultivated pet food business, four years after the company was founded.

“Imperial has created the perfect space and community for innovators like Meatly who are making the transition from R&D to commercialisation, and we’re looking forward to growing together at Grapht Works as we work to make cultivated meat more widely available for pets,” Ensor said.

Meatly has concentrated on pet food applications since its founding in 2022, developing its own bioreactors and culture medium to reduce production costs. Those technologies underpin its plans to move from initial retail releases to regular manufacturing at greater volumes.

The May funding round brought in Oyster Bay Venture Capital, Clean Growth Fund and JamJar Investments. Alongside earlier backing from Agronomics and Pets at Home, it brought the company’s total funding to £17.4 million (US$23.5 million).

When announcing the investment, Ensor said the facility would allow Meatly to demonstrate the economics of its production process.

“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 at the time.

Meatly received UK regulatory authorization in 2024 and became the first company to sell cultivated meat in Europe the following year. Its initial pet food launch with The Pack involved a limited release of Chick Bites dog treats, which combined plant-based ingredients with cultivated chicken and went on sale through Pets at Home.

The company has also reported reductions in the cost of its manufacturing inputs and equipment. Its chemically defined, protein-free culture medium reached a reported cost of £0.22 per liter (US$0.30 per liter), while it announced a roughly tenfold reduction in bioreactor costs in 2025.

Imperial said Meatly’s relocation demonstrated the demand for infrastructure that allows science businesses to retain manufacturing operations in London as they expand.

“Our investment in Grapht Works was built on a belief that this is where the UK’s next generation of industrial companies could be built, if they had the right infrastructure,” said Alice Sewell, Investment Director at Imperial. “With Meatly taking this step towards full scale production in 2027, it shows that our vision is starting to be realised.”

Sewell linked the provision of manufacturing space to retaining employment and production expertise as companies progress from research into commercial operations.

“Cultivated meat is exactly the kind of frontier industry the UK should be anchoring, and by backing the space that enables companies like Meatly to scale, we’re helping to make sure the jobs, manufacturing capability and economic value they create stay in London and the wider WestTech London ecosystem,” she said.

“It’s rewarding to see a pioneering business like this move from R&D towards production in Old Oak, and Meatly’s growth is further evidence of the strong demand we’re seeing from deep tech companies that want to scale and stay in London.”

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