UK cultivated meat company, Higher Steaks, has raised $30m in investments and changed its name to Uncommon.
The Cambridge-based company uses patented technology to create bacon and pork belly from a single animal cell, meaning antibiotics and animal products are redundant.
Investments have come from various avenues, including Balderton Capital, Lowercarbon Capital and the creator of ChatGPT, Sam Altman. This is Mr Altman’s second round of funding for the company, having invested in Uncommon at its infancy.
There have been various global hurdles to overcome for the company, and Singapore is currently the only market in the world where cultured meat is available for sale. The US FDA is reportedly looking to give the green light to approving similar products, whilst some countries, including Italy, are pushing back against the process. However, the company is looking forward, aiming for a 5% share of the global pork market by 2035.
Benjamina Bollag, CEO and founder of Uncommon, told Forbes that the focus is on health, whilst providing a quality product: “Pork is one of the biggest uses of antibiotics. In the US, for example, there are pretty much as many medically important antibiotics used on pigs as there are on humans.
“It’s about making sure that it looks the same, tastes the same, and really feels the same for the consumer so that you minimise the friction for them. As the only cultivated meat leveraging RNA technologies, we believe we have a competitive advantage that could help us become the largest protein company in the world.”