Cultivated meat and seafood are rapidly emerging as an appealing option for consumers seeking alternatives. The sector's rising popularity is evident in its statistics, with annual growth exceeding 50% and projections suggesting a market value surpassing $370 billion by 2030. A crucial element in realizing and maximizing this growth potential lies in technological advancements that enhance the texture and expand the range of meat and fish products available to consumers.
Nicole Kleger, Simona Fehlmann and Anna Bünter, co-founders of sallea have made it their goal to help manufacturers of cultivated foods accelerate the production of premium whole cuts like steaks and filets without the need for animal farming. Founded in November 2023 after years of research at the ETH Zurich, sallea’s technology enables the creation of precisely structured, edible, and porous 3D grids - so called scaffolds - that serve as the foundation for cultivating textured whole cuts of meat and fish. These scaffolds are added to bioreactors containing cells. These cells will then attach to sallea’s scaffolds and grow in three dimensions into whole cuts thereby improving the nutritional profile and texture of the end product. Manufacturers of cultivated foods will now not only be able to tailor the size and shape but also the nutritional profile of their scaffolds to the end product.
The startup has raised a $2.6M pre-seed round led by Founderful with participation from Kost Capital. This marks sallea's first equity investment, building on the $1.8M in non-dilutive funding previously secured through research and start-up grants. The fresh funding allows sallea to accelerate product development and initiate pilot projects with cultivating companies around the globe.
"While the potential of cellular agriculture is clear, scaling it effectively demands not only capital and expertise but also innovative solutions like sallea’s, which enable the production of high-quality products that can accelerate the path to price parity and fully satisfy consumer expectations" commented Robin Matthew, CEO of Elsa-Group (Migros Industrie), a leading group in the Swiss dairy and alternative protein industry.
"Cultivated foods have been limited to sausages and minced meat. Our technology has the potential to kick-start cellular agriculture by accelerating time to market and lowering the production costs for cultivated whole cuts such as steaks and fillets," says Simona Fehlmann, CEO and co-founder of sallea. "This funding round allows us to advance our mission of setting the industry standard for edible scaffolds in cellular agriculture. We can now upgrade our production capacity, enter partnerships for product co-development, and double down on our development efforts."
James Ryall, ex-Chief Scientific Officer at cultured meat company, Vow, added: "With cultivated meat now regulated and consumed globally, the industry is poised for its next evolutionary leap. Sallea is at the forefront of this advancement, developing next-generation scaffolds that address two critical challenges: cost reduction and enhanced structural complexity. Sallea's edible scaffolds not only opens the door to premium cultivated meat products with superior texture but also significantly lowers production costs - offering consumers a wider range of high-quality, sustainable protein options."
(Press release/RAN)
Image L-R: Simona Fehlmann and Anna Bünter & Nicole Kleger