Roslin Tech, an Edinburgh-based food & ag tech company, is pleased to announce the closing of its series A capital raise led by Novo Holdings, a leading international life sciences investor. This £11 million funding round will fuel the company’s next wave of growth in its mission to become the leading provider of animal cell lines to the emerging cultivated meat sector.

Cultivated meat is meat grown directly from animal cells without the need to raise animals. Cultivated meat offers the promise to improve animal welfare, lower antibiotics use, and reduce the environmental footprint of meat production. The cultivated meat sector is rapidly growing with over 100 companies active today and with billions of dollars of investment coming in. To deliver on the promise, cultivated meat needs to deliver a great sensory experience and production cost needs to come down. High quality cell lines are needed to make cultivated meat safe, affordable, and nutritious.

Roslin Tech has developed pluripotent animal stem cells with the capacity to self-renew indefinitely and differentiate into desired end-tissues for meat. Roslin Tech is making these cells available to cultivated meat producers globally. Currently, the company has customers in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

The new funding will allow Roslin Tech to expand its cell line portfolio and to further develop the protocols for scale up of its cells into cost competitive cell biomass for meat production. It will do so jointly with its customers, development collaborators, and the University of Edinburgh with which Roslin Tech has a privileged relationship. It will also invest in its insect venture which focuses on breeding better insects for the emerging insect protein sector, a promising regenerative agricultural technique.

Novo Holdings is joined by Kairos Capital Group, Nutreco, Future Planet Capital, Esco Lifesciences, Alchimia, and private investors. This adds to funding received in 2021-2022 from Scottish Enterprise and existing shareholders including the University of Edinburgh’s venture capital fund, Old College Capital, and Future Planet Capital’s BIF Opportunities LP.

Ernst van Orsouw, CEO of Roslin Tech, says: “We are excited to welcome Novo Holdings and other investors on our journey to improve the food system. With the investment and strategic support, we can accelerate the development of better cells for the sector and focus on making our customers successful.”

Nis Bak from Novo Holdings, and new board member of Roslin Tech, adds: “We've been impressed with Roslin Technologies’ team and innovative technologies, which have the potential to materially improve the production of novel, sustainable proteins. We are excited to invest alongside a strong syndicate of investors whose joint vision for Roslin Technologies and complementary capabilities will be a great asset to the company in its continued development.”

Anthony Siau, founder of Kairos Capital Group and new board member, continues: “The combination of innovative technology, robust business model and expert scientific team makes Roslin Tech a uniquely qualified investment from our newly launched Kairos FoodTech Fund. We look forward to working with the Roslin Tech Board and leadership team to further expand its presence, particularly in Asia.”

Catherine Martin, Vice Principal of Corporate Services at the University of Edinburgh said: “We are delighted to welcome Novo Holdings as partner and look forward to jointly supporting Roslin Technologies. The scale of this new investment and the calibre of its source is a testament to the expertise and experience of the Roslin Technologies team and a great indicator of likely future success.”