Launched in March 2022 by Agronomics and Roslin Technologies, cultivated pet food company Good Dog Food (GDF) has raised £3.6 million in a seed financing round.
“We aim to bring some of the first-ever cultivated meat products to market”
Agronomics (ANIC:LSE), the UK’s leading biotech VC, announced its participation in the round with a £1 million investment. It now holds 8,768 shares in GDF, representing 42.4 percent of the company.
Siddhi Capital, an investor in innovative food products, and other private individuals also participated in the seed round. Executive Director of Agronomics, Jim Mellon, backed the London-based pet food company with £300,000 becoming a 2.99% shareholder.
Revolutionizing the pet food industry
Owen Ensor, CEO of Good Dog Food, said: “We’re extremely excited to work with Agronomics. Their industry-leading expertise and advice have been fundamental to the ongoing success of Good Dog Food. With their support, we aim to bring some of the first-ever cultivated meat products to market and, ultimately, help transform our food system into one that is both sustainable and ethical.”
GDF aims to revolutionize the pet food industry with innovative slaughter-free products. The company argues that meat production significantly impacts the environment, contributing to climate change and overexploiting natural resources.
Decarbonizing the world’s protein production
By leveraging cellular agriculture, GDF is taking a new approach to pet food production to develop sustainable, antibiotic-free meat ingredients for nutritious pet food. Since regulations for novel ingredients for pet food are softer, commercializing cultivated dog food will be easier and faster than cultivated meat for humans, argues GDF.
The company says it has created prototype products and that is already building relationships with key pet food manufacturers and retailers.
“Cellular agriculture is one of the only technologies with the potential to decarbonize the world’s protein production system while meeting the protein needs of the growing global population, and its significance continues to grow as many companies look to move out of the R&D stage and into commercial production,” Anthony Chow, co-founder of Agronomics told vegconomist.
