British biotech pioneer Meatly appoints Diffusion

Meatly, the British biotech company pioneering cultivated meat for pet food, has appointed Diffusion as its communications agency as it prepares to scale production and make its products more widely available. Meatly became the first company in Europe to receive regulatory approval for cultivated meat, becoming the first company in the world to sell it in February 2025.

Diffusion has been appointed to build Meatly’s profile in the UK and internationally, establishing the company as the leading voice on cultivated meat and helping build understanding and trust in a new biotechnology among stakeholders ranging from consumers and industry to policymakers and regulators.

Founded in 2022, Meatly produces cultivated meat for the pet food market. Since launch, the company has focused on making the technology more affordable and easier to scale, significantly reducing both the cost of growing its meat and the equipment needed to produce it.

Diffusion’s appointment comes as Meatly enters its next phase of growth. The company raised £10.4 million in Series A funding in May, bringing its total funding to £17.4 million. It is also developing a new scale-up site in London, set to be the largest cultivated meat facility in Europe, ahead of further product launches in 2027.

Diffusion will deliver an integrated communications programme spanning media relations, consumer education, thought leadership and executive profiling. Alongside communicating Meatly’s progress towards commercial scale, the campaign will focus on building understanding and trust in cultivated meat, engaging audiences from pet owners and industry partners to investors, policymakers and regulators. It will also establish CEO Owen Ensor and the wider Meatly team as leading voices in debates around the future of food, protein security, biotechnology, climate and the UK’s opportunity to build a globally competitive cultivated meat industry.

Owen Ensor, CEO of Meatly, commented: “We’ve spent the last four years focused relentlessly on solving the scientific and engineering challenges that stand between cultivated meat and commercial scale. We’re now entering a very different phase. Cultivated meat represents a new way of producing food, and as we begin to make it more widely available, we need to help people understand where it comes from, why we’re doing it and the benefits it can bring.

“Building understanding and trust will be critical, among everyone from consumers to policymakers and regulators. We chose Diffusion because of their knowledge of the biotech sector, their understanding of the communications challenges that increasingly face novel science, and their experience helping scale-ups build their profile and reputation as they grow. They know how to communicate complex science clearly and credibly, while also having the creativity to connect what we are building to much bigger conversations around food security, sustainability, British innovation and the future of protein.”

Ivana Farthing, Head of Science & Innovation Practice at Diffusion, commented: “Cultivated meat and precision fermentation are areas where the UK has built a genuine innovation lead. As climate change puts traditional agriculture under growing pressure and global supply chains become more vulnerable to geopolitical and economic shocks, finding more sustainable and reliable ways to produce protein is only going to become more important. Meatly is a brilliant British success story, pioneering cultivated meat globally and now entering the next stage of its growth. It has an ambition not just to succeed in this new industry, but to help shape its future. We can’t wait to help them do that, building the understanding and trust that will be critical to making cultivated meat mainstream.”

If you’re a biotech innovator looking for comms to better support your growth ambitions, we’d love to use our expertise and media relationships to help you. Please get in touch at ivana [dot] farthing [at] diffusionpr.com