Cultivated Lobster Startup Acquired by UPSIDE Foods

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With the acquisition, cell-based meat company UPSIDE Foods hopes to accelerate the commercialization of cultivated seafood products.

Slaughter-free lobster just got one step closer to reality as cultivated meat startup, UPSIDE Foods, announces its acquisition of Cultured Decadence, a cultivated seafood company.

Cultured Decadence will adopt UPSIDE's brand and remain in Wisconsin as UPSIDE's Midwest hub. Upside Foods said the acquisition would expand its product portfolio and “accelerate commercialization” of its seafood products.

The crustacean seafood industry is considered one of the most energy-intensive sectors. Crustaceans are driving “94% of the projected increase of global fishery carbon emissions, due to low capture efficiency”, according to the Ecological Society of America. Cultivated seafood could offer a much-needed solution to this environmentally damaging and cruel method practice of catching, farming, and killing aquatic animals. 

"Seafood has a rich and delicious culinary tradition that makes it a favorite across the globe. Cultivated seafood also has a tremendous potential to benefit the world," said Dr. Uma Valeti, Founder and CEO of UPSIDE Foods. "Cultured Decadence's technology is incredibly promising, and their team is filled with passionate, smart individuals who want to make our favorite food a force for good. We're thrilled to welcome the Cultured Decadence team to the UPSIDE family and are excited that the scientific, technological, and production infrastructure we have built over many years can help accelerate the mission impact of this team."

Founded in 2020 by John Pattison and Ian Johnson, Cultured Decadence has set up proprietary cell lines and cell feed for various different seafood products, including lobster and other crustaceans. Before being acquired by UPSIDE, the company attracted $1.6 million in pre-seed funding. Investors included Chicago-based venture-capital fund Bluestein Ventures, US-based GlassWall Syndicate, as well as Chinese investment firm Dao Foods.

“We’ve long admired UPSIDE’s innovation and leadership in the cultivated meat industry,” Pattison and Johnson said in a joint statement. “UPSIDE’s unparalleled R&D and scale-up capabilities will significantly accelerate the commercialization of cultivated delicious,  sustainable, and humane seafood … we are incredibly proud and humbled to be joining such a talented group with a deep shared sense of mission, purpose, and commitment to doing the right thing.”

UPSIDE's acquisition of Cultured Decadence is only one of several recent developments the Berkeley food tech company has made recently. Last November, it opened its Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC). The new, $50 million, 53,000-square-foot facility is the largest laboratory dedicated to cultivated meat production in the world.

Valeti, a former Mayo Clinic cardiologist, co-founded UPSIDE Foods (previously Memphis Meats) in 2015 and has since taken the cultivated meat world by storm. The start-up has already pioneered the world’s first multi-species, cell-based meat platform and made history by unveiling chicken, duck, and beef grown directly from animal cells. 

Cultivated meat is one of the leading solutions to eliminating factory farms and making the suffering of animals in the farming industry a thing of the past. And because it’s crafted in a lab rather than via animals on a farm, it’s healthier than conventional meat because it contains no antibiotics. Investors are seeing the game-changing potential of cultivated animal products - over the last two years, almost $2.5 billion has been invested into the sector.

Learn more about UPSIDE Foods and its mission to change the world’s food system by listening to the Species Unite podcast episode with Uma Valeti.


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Species Unite

A collection of stories of those who fight the good fight on behalf of animals.


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