Mewery appoints former Believer Meats CTO Moria Shimoni as 300 g/L breakthrough bolsters scale-up plans

Mewery, a Czech biotech startup developing cultivated meat technology, has appointed industry veteran Dr Moria Shimoni as Chief Technology Officer as it advances toward commercialization, highlighting a recent bioprocessing breakthrough and new investor support as signs of progress.

• Mewery has appointed Dr Moria Shimoni as CTO, bringing experience from Believer Meats and Forsea Foods to support its transition from pre-pilot development to industrial implementation.

• The company has reported achieving a biomass yield of 300 g/L through stable suspension cultivation and continuous harvesting, improving productivity and strengthening production economics.

• Mewery has secured backing from Vesna VC and is raising additional funding to support pilot-scale production, regulatory preparation, and industrial validation of its co-cultivation platform.

The Brno-based company has confirmed Shimoni joins at a pivotal stage as Mewery works to move from pre-pilot development toward industrial implementation. The company is also raising additional funding to support pilot-scale production, regulatory preparation and further validation of its technology.

Shimoni has brought experience from senior roles at Believer Meats, formerly Future Meat Technologies, and Forsea Foods, where she worked on scaling cultivated meat systems. During her career, she contributed to the design of one of the world’s largest cultivated meat facilities, helped develop multi-species platforms and worked on technologies advancing toward pre-commercial production and regulatory approval.

Her arrival has come as cultivated meat companies face mounting pressure to show that their technologies can be scaled efficiently and economically, not just demonstrated in the lab. For Mewery, the appointment is intended to strengthen its technical leadership as it seeks to turn its platform into an industrial process.

“The cultivated meat sector is entering a phase where technological robustness and industrial experience become critical,” said Roman Lauš, founder and CEO of Mewery. “Moria brings exactly the kind of expertise needed to translate promising research into scalable production processes.”

“When I first saw Mewery’s co-cultivation concept, I instantly thought it was a real chance to overcome the toughest hurdles in the industry: efficiency, unit economics, and ultimately profitability,” said Shimoni.

Mewery is developing a platform based on co-cultivating animal cells with microalgae cells in controlled bioreactors. The company has stated that the combination is designed to reduce mammalian cell death, improve yields and enrich the resulting biomass with additional nutrients, while using food-grade bioreactors and maintaining relatively low capital expenditure requirements.

The company has reported reaching a milestone in bioprocess development by mastering stable suspension cultivation of porcine cells, enabling a simplified and scalable production process without the need for scaffolding. It has also implemented a continuous growth and harvesting strategy, which it said has significantly increased biomass productivity.

As part of that progress, Mewery has reported achieving a biomass yield of 300 g/L, a figure it said places the company among the highest-yielding approaches reported in cellular agriculture. Yield is a key metric in the cultivated meat sector because higher biomass density can increase output per bioreactor and improve the economics of production.

“Yield is one of the fundamental parameters determining whether cultivated meat can become commercially viable,” Lauš said. “Achieving this level of biomass density confirms that our technology can deliver the performance needed for industrial-scale production.”

Alongside its technical progress, Mewery has expanded its investor base with backing from Vesna VC, a Croatian deep-tech fund focused on disruptive innovations with social impact. The company has stated that the investment reflects confidence in its technological approach and long-term development strategy, although financial details were not disclosed.

Mewery is currently raising additional funding to support the next stage of development. This includes industrial validation of its technology, pilot-scale production with several partners in Europe and preparations for regulatory processes as the company moves closer to commercialization.

Founded as a food and deep-tech startup, Mewery has centered its approach on a proprietary co-culturing method that combines animal and microalgae cells. The company has stated that this method leverages the advantages of both organisms, reducing cell death, increasing yield and improving the nutritional profile of the resulting biomass.

The company is now working to scale the process to semi-industrial volumes through partnerships and ongoing development, with the appointment of Shimoni marking a step toward strengthening its capabilities as it advances toward commercial deployment.