British cell-based meat technology company CellRev has announced its closure due to financial difficulties in securing sufficient funding.

UK Biotech Firm CellulaREvolution (CellRev) Goes Into Administration

In a surprising turn of events, CellulaREvolution (CellRev), a Newcastle-based bioprocessor of cell culture technologies, has entered into administration on August 12, 2022. Ed Connell and Mike Kienlen from advisory firm Armstrong Watson were appointed as administrators.

Founded in 2018, CellRev spun out from Newcastle University with a novel enzymatic process for bioprocessing. The company specialized in enzyme technology for the cultivated meat, regenerative medicine, and vaccine sectors. However, it seems that the company pivoted away from the cultivated meat sector and focused solely on the life sciences opportunity, specifically vaccines.

The decline in funding for the cultivated meat industry may have played a role in CellRev's financial struggles. In the first six months of 2025, companies in the cultivated meat space received just $35M. This figure represents a 40% decline from the previous year, securing only $139M, its lowest annual total since 2019. Between 2022 and 2024, the cultivated meat sector cumulatively raised less money than it did in 2021 alone.

CellRev's flagship product, AggreGuard, is a specialist enzyme blend that prevents cells from clumping together during production. The company aimed to optimize cell manufacturing with reagents, addressing the industry's scalability, quality, and cost barriers.

Despite these efforts, the company couldn't deliver commercial milestones fast enough to secure Series A investment, according to Chris Green, the CEO of CellRev. Other companies in the sector, such as FlyBlast and SciFi Foods, have also faced similar challenges and have wound down or declared bankruptcy.

Following the appointment of administrators, all staff at CellRev were made redundant. The joint administrators are working with Hilco Valuation Services to realize the assets of the company. In a positive note, CellRev secured deals to develop a cell and gene therapy product range and signed commercial partnerships and began conducting pilots in the vaccines sector.

At this time, there are no publicly available search results indicating which investors the British biotech company last contractually engaged with to support the company or provide further financing before its insolvency.

As the biotech industry continues to evolve, it is important to remember the challenges faced by companies like CellRev and to support the ongoing efforts to innovate and overcome these obstacles.

British cell-based meat technology company CellRev has announced its closure due to financial difficulties in securing sufficient funding.