Alternative proteins are no longer the preserve of Silicon Valley startups. Homegrown UK companies are now competing in a market that could be worth $20.5 billion by 2029.
Policy support for the sector is growing more than ever. Earlier this year, the UK government launched a research programme that could pave the way for product approvals. Public R&D funds are also increasing.
Which UK companies are in the running to capture this growth market? Here are some British alternative protein startups to watch.
Oceanium – Oban, Scotland
Low-input, fast-growing marine algae could become an important source of sustainable protein that needs less land, less fertiliser, and less freshwater to produce.
Scotland-based Oceanium is one of the companies leading the way, turning seaweed into plant-based meat. It has been working to scale its biorefinery since 2023 with a series of investment rounds.
Founded in 2018, the company isolates protein and protein products from kelps and green seaweeds. The end result is not just one product but a whole range of ingredients for food and beverages.
This business model is known as a ‘cascade biorefinery’, a biomass processing plant that produces several chemicals from a single feedstock at the same time. The advantage of this is that it squeezes out maximum value from the starting raw material – in this case, seaweed – minimising waste materials.
The model allows Oceanium to target several markets at once, including nutraceuticals. Selling higher value algae proteins into the health and wellness industry can support margins enough to continue producing for lower-value markets like food.
Cascade biorefineries make economic sense in a nascent industry that needs to cut costs and maximise returns as much as possible to compete against heavily subsidised livestock products.
Naylor Nutrition – Lincolnshire
Cabbage is an unusual choice of alternative protein feedstock. Nonetheless, Naylor Nutrition of Lincolnshire are busy promoting it as a sustainable source of future protein.
In 2023, Naylor Farms began constructing what it calls the world’s first dedicated brassica protein plant. It will produce four products made from the humble winter veg: a protein gel egg alternative, a nutrient-rich protein powder for the wellness market, a high-protein cabbage fibre, and an umami syrup that injects flavour into cooking.
Cabbage has certain advantages over better-known protein crops like soy and peas, such as its resilience, suitability to diverse climates and soils, and high biomass yields per acre.
Quorn – North Yorkshire
No overview of the British alternative protein industry could overlook the original alt-meat producer: Quorn.
Based in Billingham, Stokeley, and Thetford, the company is the leading face of alternative protein, stocked by almost all supermarkets in Britain today. It has around 40 per cent market share for UK alternative meats.
Quorn’s products are based on the fermentation of filamentous fungi species Fusarium venenatum.
Quorn’s business history contains a key lesson for investors in the alt-protein space today – the company’s commercial success was a long time coming.
Despite being approved for sale in the UK in 1983, it was the BSE epidemic of the mid-1990s that shifted consumer preference away from livestock beef towards plant-based options.
From there, major British supermarkets Sainsbury’s and Tesco carried the brand to prominence, giving its products more shelf space and collaborating on product development.
Today, Quorn’s annual sales remain far higher than all its alternative protein peers apart from Beyond Meat.
Myconeos – Nottingham
Plant-based cheese still can’t match the real thing on taste. Myconeos is trying to change that using fungi.
Myconeos is one of the boldest food biotech firms in the UK. A 2018 spin-off from Nottingham University, its basic innovation is a new way to make certain fungi species sexually reproduce in the lab – something that is very difficult to achieve.
Unlike asexual reproduction, the survival strategy favoured by most fungi, sexual reproduction combines and shuffles genetic traits. Sexual reproduction has a key advantage when it comes to food tech, though – it introduces diversity: in flavour, growing habits, and colours. This gives Myconeos’ scientists more choice when it comes to selecting new strains that they could cultivate into tasty cheese replicas.
The technology could be repurposed to enhance other kinds of plant-based proteins and create fermented meat products.
One of the more intriguing applications for Myconeos’ fungal technology is its ability to save heritage cheese varieties from extinction. French cheesemakers have enlisted the help of Myconeos after it appeared that the camembert strain was struggling to sexually reproduce after decades of producers simply cloning the bacteria asexually.
The company is still starting in its commercialisation journey with just one seed funding round in December 2021.
This™ – London
This™ is fast-becoming Britain’s most recognisable plant-based protein brand. Its products stock most high-street supermarket shelves with offerings that have extended beyond patties and mince into an elaborate ready-to-eat range.
The company suffered heavy losses in the last couple of years after rapid growth in the pandemic-era surge in sustainable eating. Now, it is targeting profitability by this year as it focuses on improving margins.
This pattern of growth followed by financial consolidation is a familiar trajectory in the sustainable food space, which saw a stunning boom in 2022 followed by a slump. This fared better than most of its competitors in 2023 and continues to consolidate its gains with an investment round last year, with a Series C equity funding round of £20 million.
Nova Farina – Norwich
Nova Farina is an alt-protein producer trying to leverage the agricultural wealth of its local region to create sustainable foods.
The company specialises in creating new plant-based ingredients for food manufacturers using British crops. Its focus is on pea protein – a classic in the plant-based protein space – but it is also interested in other feedstocks, including fava beans.
Its home base in the region of East Anglia is one of the best places to explore the protein potential of native arable crops, with a favourable climate and highly diverse cropping plants already being grown there.
Companies like Nova Farina that sell to other businesses are set to benefit from ongoing growth in plant protein demand from major supermarkets for own-brand vegan offerings.
By building new markets for processed legumes. Nova Farina and others like it are crucial for supporting climate-driven transitions in British agriculture. As southern England warms, we are likely to see farmers shift towards planting higher protein legumes that the company works with.
CellRev – Newcastle
UK alt-protein startups are dominated by plant-based options, but CellRev specialises in creating enzyme inputs for fermented proteins.
Fermented proteins involve growing proteins in the lab from the cells upwards, rather than extracting protein products from plants. This type of alternative protein has higher entry costs but can deliver highly customisable ingredients that replicate conventional meat and dairy.
Another feature that marks CellRev out from an investor perspective is that it has been developing a type of cell production technique called continuous cell harvesting.
As World Bio Markets explained in a previous feature, continuous cell harvesting is considered to be the most economical way of cultivating meat in the lab compared to the more common batch method.
Companies that manage to crack continuous harvesting on an industrial scale will gain a significant advantage in the alternative protein market. Right now, one of the biggest barriers to consumer acceptance is that alternative proteins are still generally more expensive than livestock proteins.
Building alt-protein while supporting farmers
The UK has many advantages when it comes to nurturing a vibrant alt-protein sector. First is a solid university-to-industry pipeline in the life sciences, with rich potential for R&D collaborations between the two.
The government has given over £75 million in alternative protein innovation since 2021, which has boosted its standing relative to European peers.
Most importantly, alternative protein may soon go from novelty to policy necessity due to climate pressures. The UK’s reliance on imported food makes it highly vulnerable to supply shortfalls as volatile weather ravages foreign producers.
Just last month, UK food industry insiders published a whistleblowing memo pointing to serious risks of shortages in their sector thanks to climate change.
With the UK likely to face climate-driven food insecurity much faster than comparable economies, the alternative protein sector could turn out to be an important pillar in domestic food security.
To allow it to meet the challenge, alt-protein producers in the UK still needs more policy support. Although it has stepped up recently, government investment lags behind leaders like Canada and Denmark. While there is an abundance of plant-based protein startups, there are relatively few cultivated meat outfits in the UK compared to in the US or Israel.
To help the industry succeed, the government also needs a policy that supports legacy livestock farmers in making the sustainability transition.
Pushback against sustainable food reform is less likely when there is serious financial support and educational opportunities for those who may lose out, including UK livestock farmers that face economic threats from growth in the alt protein industry.
In addition to favourable regulation and investment for alt protein, then, we need more social-scientific research into the challenges novel proteins will pose to some traditional sectors.
