Developing cultivated pork using microalgae growth factors instead of fetal bovine serum is a key factor in Mewery’s strategy, becoming the first Czech company to make it into the prestigious Big Idea Ventures portfolio. Following this initial undisclosed investment, another and larger investment round is now being prepared open to other investors.

“These methods have been used in pharma for many years”

There are other players currently in the European cultivated pork sector, including Higher Steaks, a leading food technology company in the UK that revealed the world’s first cultivated bacon and pork belly. In China, the country’s first cultivated meat company Joes Future Food recently raised $10.9 million to build a pork production line.

“One really needs to understand that the process of cultivating meat in the lab is just another process by which cells grow. It’s not Frankenstein-meat, it’s not something completely strange – these methods have been used in pharma for many years”, said Mewery Founder and CEO Roman Laus.

“The way we get meat now through industrial farming to our table is not sustainable – it cannot survive. So this is one of the options – not the only one, but one – for how to make our world more sustainable and to also get protein to an ever-growing population.”