Nutreco today announces it has taken a minority share in Scotland-based Roslin Technologies Limited (“Roslin Tech”) in the company’s recently closed Series A funding round. The £11 million funding round is intended to fuel Roslin Tech’s next wave of growth in its mission to become the leading provider of animal cell lines to the emerging cultivated meat sector.
This latest investment gives Nutreco a stake in another link of the developing cultivated protein supply chain and enables the company to make further progress towards its purpose of Feeding the Future. Nutreco expects the animal protein markets to continue to grow and to offer exciting prospects and remains fully committed to supporting livestock and aquaculture customers with ingredients and technologies. However, to sustainably feed an ever-growing population, the world will need more solutions than animal protein – and cultured meat is a great alternative.
“Insights gained from this partnership could provide an opportunity for Nutreco to supply ingredients to the cultivated protein industry and accelerate our commitment to our purpose of Feeding the Future,” said Nutreco CEO Fulco van Lede. “It offers us pole position in combining genetics with feed leadership – amplifying our commitment to innovation, quality and sustainability.”
Unlike Nutreco’s previous investments in alternative protein, Roslin Technologies is not a protein producer, but a supplier to the production process. Roslin's expertise is in cell-line development for cultivated meat production; the company has developed stem cells with the capacity to always self-renew and differentiate in desired end-tissues for meat. Since the supply of cell lines is expected to be a bottleneck in the growth of cultivated protein, Roslin Tech offers a critical solution for building Nutreco’s potential future “cell feed” proposition.
“By combining Nutreco’s extensive knowledge on feed ingredients and supply chains and Roslin Technologies’ complementary skillsets on cell line development, we can do for cell-farming businesses what we already do for animal farmers: provide the best possible nutrients to the people who are growing the protein,” said van Lede.
The Series A capital raise was led by Novo Holdings, a leading international life sciences investor, with further investment from Nutreco and several other companies, including Kairos Capital Group, Esco Lifesciences, Future Planet Capital and Alchimia.
