What Extracellular does

Extracellular is a Bristol, UK-based contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) founded in 2021 by Will Milligan, dedicated to supporting the cellular agriculture industry through bioprocessing and scale-up services for animal and plant cell-cultivated products. The company serves startups and enterprises developing cultivated meat, seafood, plant-cell-derived ingredients (cocoa, coffee, saffron), cosmetics actives (cell lysate, exosomes), and bio-materials (cultivated leather, cotton, wood), addressing the 'valley of death' between R&D and commercial production by eliminating the need for customers to build their own pilot facilities. Its technology platform combines proprietary continuous perfusion and repeated fed-batch processes delivering industry-leading 380g/L+ yields, a high-throughput screening platform capable of evaluating up to 1,000 media or cell conditions, and parallel bioreactor optimization using 12-24 units to compress process development timelines.

The company operates Europe's largest dedicated contract pilot facility for cell-cultivated products at its 9,000 ft² Bristol site within the Science Creates incubator, with bioreactor capacities ranging from 50L to 2,000L and planned expansion to 8,000L total capacity (up to 100 tons/year). Extracellular holds ISO 22000 food safety management, ISO 9001:2015 quality management, and Cyber Essentials Plus certifications, and is registered as a UK Food Business with the FSA and FSS, enabling regulated taste trials for novel cell-cultivated foods. Revenue is generated through five service lines (Contract Manufacturing, Process Development, Media Development, Cell Line Development, and Consultancy) sold via direct enterprise sales on a quote-based, multi-year contract pricing model. The company has served 20+ customers across 8 countries and 4 continents, with named engagements including Merck Life Science and Meatly, and is supported by strategic partnerships with Big Idea Ventures, Vevolution, Roslin Technologies, Nutreco, and Innovate UK.

Name

Extracellular

Legal name

Extracellular

Website

https://extracellular.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Extracellular is a Bristol-based CDMO providing bioprocessing and scale-up services for cell-cultivated meat, seafood, plant cell ingredients, cosmetics, and bio-materials companies, operating Europe's largest dedicated pilot facility to bridge R&D and commercial production.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Bioprocessing CDMO Services

NAICS

Pharmaceutical and Medicine Manufacturing (3254)

SIC

General Industrial Machinery & Equipment, Nec (3569)

akta.pro primary industry

Cell Therapy CDMO (HLAGABAD)

akta.pro secondary industry

Biologics (mAbs/Recombinant Proteins) CDMO (HLAGABAC)

Keywords

• Cultivated meat CDMO
• Bioprocessing services
• Cell line development
• Media optimization services
• Contract manufacturing

Headquarters

HQ city

Bristol

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Contract Manufacturing: Scale-up and contract manufacturing services up to 2,000L bioreactor scale within purpose-built food-grade facilities. Customers pay for manufacturing capacity and production services.
2. Process Development Services: Optimization and scale-up of manufacturing processes using plant and animal cells. Includes parallel bioreactors for high-throughput optimization, process intensification, and scalability studies.
3. Media Development Services: High-throughput media optimisation for cost, quality and regulatory compliance, including serum replacement and cost optimization studies.
4. Cell Line Development Services: Established workflows for adherent and suspension cell lines including cell isolation, monoclonal cell lines, cell banking, and suspension adaptation.
5. Consultancy Services: Technology assessment, manufacturability and cost modelling for novel bio-based products including commercial strategy, technology landscape analysis, and due diligence support.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Extracellular is a contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) providing bioprocessing and scale-up services for cell-cultivated products. The company offers five core service lines — Contract Manufacturing (up to 2,000L bioreactor scale), Process Development, Media Development, Cell Line Development, and Consultancy — targeting cultivated meat, seafood, plant cell culture, cosmetics, and bio-materials companies. All services are delivered from purpose-built food-grade facilities in Bristol, UK.

Product overview

Extracellular is a CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organisation) offering five interconnected service lines covering the full product development lifecycle. The three development-focused services—Process Development, Media Development, and Cell Line Development—handle R&D projects across cell-line development, media optimization, and process engineering. The two commercial-stage services—Contract Manufacturing and Consultancy Services—provide infrastructure and expertise for production at scale and strategic guidance on market entry. All services support the company's three market focus areas: Food & Nutrition (cultivated meat, seafood, plant cell culture), Personal Care & Cosmetics (plant cell derived ingredients), and Materials (cultivated leather, cotton, wood). The company operates purpose-built facilities in Bristol, UK, with bioreactor capabilities from 1L to 2,000L.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Contract Manufacturing Scale-up and contract manufacturing services up to 2,000L within purpose-built facilities, providing commercial production, material supply for product evaluation, and scalability validation for cell-cultivated product companies in food, cosmetics, and materials sectors.
• Process Development Optimization and scale-up of manufacturing processes using plant and animal cells, featuring parallel bioreactors for high-throughput optimisation, process intensification, and support for continuous, semi-continuous, and fed-batch processes.
• Media Development High-throughput media optimisation for cost, quality and regulatory compliance, including high-throughput screening, animal serum component replacement, cost optimisation, and media stability studies for cell-cultivated products.
• Cell Line Development Established workflows for adherent and suspension cell lines to optimize growth and productivity, including cell isolation, monoclonal cell lines, cell banking, and suspension adaptation for cultivated meat and other cell-cultivated products.
• Consultancy Services Technology assessment, manufacturability and cost modelling for novel bio-based products, including commercial strategy, cost of goods modelling, technology landscape analysis, and due diligence support for companies developing cell-cultivated products.

Quantifiable outcome

• Up to 70% reduction in costs and timelines for media scaling projects (200L scale in 5 months)
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Roslin TechnologiescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-presenting at the 2025 NAPIC Inaugural Conference on process innovations. Collaboration includes developing scalable, robust production platforms for cell cultivated products leveraging continuous perfusion and repeated fed-batch processes. Joint poster presentation showcasing complementary approaches to scalable manufacturing.
• Merck Life SciencecoreTechnology or IntegrationStrategic partnership to scale Merck's serum-free media formulation to 200L using fed-batch process. Successfully produced kilograms of cultivated meat, demonstrating both Merck's high-performance media and Extracellular's pilot scale capabilities. Partnership highlighted at MEVO Conference 2024 in Barcelona.
• Science CreatescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerScience Creates is the host incubator for Extracellular's Bristol headquarters. Provides infrastructure, facilities, and ecosystem support for biotech startups. Extracellular is based at and supported by Science Creates in Bristol.
• Multus BiotechnologyminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated to produce low-cost, license-free cell banks relevant to the cultivated meat industry. This collaboration enables research organisations across the UK and globally to use these cells to develop better cultivated meat products.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• The Cultured Hub: Dutch CDMO dedicated to cellular agriculture scale-up, offering pilot-scale bioprocessing services for cultivated meat and precision fermentation companies. Directly comparable as one of the few dedicated cellular agriculture CDMOs in Europe.
• Culture Biosciences: US-based contract bioprocess development company operating smart bioreactor facilities with high-throughput process optimization for synbio and cellular agriculture customers. Comparable service model (CDMO/bioprocess development) and target customer base in synthetic biology.

Broad incumbents

• Ginkgo Bioworks: Large US synthetic biology platform offering cell engineering and biomanufacturing services across food, agriculture, and industrial biotech verticals. Broad incumbent with overlapping capabilities in cellular agriculture, though focused upstream on strain engineering rather than downstream food-grade manufacturing.
• Catalent: Major global CDMO with biologics manufacturing capabilities across scales and modalities. Broad incumbent whose mammalian cell culture expertise and global footprint represent a potential competitive threat if they extend into cellular agriculture CDMO services.
• Samsung Biologics: Large-scale Korean CDMO offering biologics contract manufacturing with significant bioreactor capacity and mammalian cell expertise. Broad incumbent representing potential competitive threat if they enter cellular agriculture services given their existing scale and capital base.

Emerging players

• Bota Bio: China/US biomanufacturing platform combining synthetic biology, strain engineering, and process scale-up for food, beauty, and industrial applications. Emerging player with partial overlap in cellular agriculture bioprocessing and a comparable customer focus on alternative proteins.
• Cradle Bio: Netherlands-based protein engineering platform using AI/ML to design and optimize bioprocesses for synbio applications including food and industrial biotech. Emerging player with overlapping bioprocess optimization capability, though focused more on computational design than physical pilot-scale manufacturing.
• Shiru: US-based AI-driven protein discovery and biomanufacturing company serving food and personal care customers with novel functional ingredients. Emerging player with partial overlap in food/cellular agriculture bioprocessing, though more focused on ingredient discovery than pilot-scale CDMO services.

Others

• Lonza: Global pharma and biotech CDMO with extensive mammalian cell culture capabilities across scales and regulatory expertise. Broad incumbent whose existing biopharma CDMO platform could pivot to cellular agriculture services if the market matures, representing a significant potential competitive threat.
• Multus Biotechnology: UK-based producer of low-cost growth media for cultivated meat, a complementary ecosystem player to Extracellular's process development and manufacturing services. Related but not directly competitive — Multus supplies inputs while Extracellular uses them in scale-up services.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/extracellular

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors8 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Extracellular