Venture funding for cultivated meat development fell from $989 million in 2021 to $36 million in 2025 — a collapse of roughly 96% in four years — according to figures tracking the industry. The retrenchment claimed several high-profile startups last year, including Believer Meats, which shut down just two weeks after completing a $125 million manufacturing plant near Raleigh, North Carolina.

The Good Food Institute reported that cultured meat and seafood companies attracted more than $2.5 billion in investment from 2021 through 2023, likely an underestimate given how quickly money moved. By 2023, about half of VC capital went to a top five: Upside Foods (formerly Memphis Meats), Believer Meats (formerly Future Meat Technologies), Wildtype, Aleph Farms and Mosa Meat. Tyson Foods and JBS invested alongside sovereign wealth funds and traditional VC sources.

Why did the startups fail?

The 2025 shutdowns came fast.

• Meatable, a Netherlands-based cultivated pork maker founded in 2018, ceased operations in late 2025 after acquiring Uncommon Bio's platform in a bid to diversify into lamb and chicken.
• CellRev (CellulaReVolution), a UK developer of proprietary media additives for cell manufacturing, announced its closure after missing commercial milestones needed to secure investment.
• Upstream Foods, a three-year-old Dutch company developing cultivated salmon fat, shut down after failing to raise capital.
• Believer Meats closed with the biggest impact. The startup, valued at $600 million in 2021, lost a major financial backer two weeks after finishing its 200,000-square-foot facility and could not secure a last-ditch loan. It ceased operations before producing anything, leaving an empty factory.

Venture funds expect massive returns within five to seven years. Market viability for cultivated meat is now not expected for at least another decade, possibly longer. Biomanufacturing compounds the problem: bioreactors demand expensive energy inputs and specialized nutrient solutions, and capital expenditures remain massive.

What is the regulatory picture?

The U.S. regulatory system is not the bottleneck. The FDA and USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service have cleared five cultivated products for production and domestic sale between 2023 and 2025: GOOD Meat (cultured chicken), UPSIDE Foods (cultured pork), Wildtype (cultured salmon), Mission Barns (cultured chicken) and Believer Meats (cultured chicken).

The FDA attributes the absence of these products from grocery stores to scale, not approval. "Manufacturers are generally working on scaling up their processes to consistently produce amounts large enough to be competitively priced," the agency states, promising to continue the work "as these products come closer to market."

GOOD Meat sold the first cultivated product with regulatory approval in 2020 — chicken nuggets at a restaurant in Singapore — with approvals later following in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Israel and Hong Kong for products including quail, salmon and pork. Thirteen years after Maastricht University's Mark Post presented the first cultivated burger, nothing comparable is generally available to consumers.

In the EU, the European Food Safety Authority has yet to approve any cell-cultured food of animal origin for sale.

How are states responding?

As of 2025, eight states have banned or heavily restricted the manufacturing, sale or distribution of lab-grown meat, and more than 20 states have enacted strict labeling laws for alternative proteins.

• Florida: first full ban in 2024; manufacture or sale is a misdemeanor.
• Alabama: outlawed cultivation and sale in 2024 with criminal penalties.
• Texas and Indiana: temporary distribution bans extending until 2027.
• South Dakota: five-year moratorium effective July 1, 2026, plus restrictions on state funds for research or procurement.
• Mississippi, Montana and Nebraska: bans or distribution restrictions; Nebraska also bars state agencies and universities from purchasing cultivated meat.

Technology companies argue these measures stifle innovation, limit consumer choice and may face constitutional challenges on interstate commerce grounds. Traditional agriculture states say they protect ranchers and consumer transparency.

By the numbers

• 20 cultured meat companies operate worldwide.
• One company is expected to hold 15% of the market.
• Poultry products are projected to hold 48% of the market; burgers and patties 38.5%.
• 52.5% of cultivated meat sales are expected to come through food service.
• North America holds 41% of the global market.

What happens next?

The economics, not regulators, now set the timeline. High production costs confine initial rollouts to high-end restaurants, energy demands could rival traditional farming's climate impact if powered by fossil fuels, and consumer skepticism — plus unresolved kosher and halal debates — limits demand. With VC money withdrawn and market viability a decade out, cultivated meat's path to menus runs through cheaper bioreactors and media, not through another funding cycle.