Chewing the fat with George Zhelezyni, Co-Founder and CEO of Cultimate
Cultivated fat offers an exciting prospect for ingredient houses and plant-based brands alike. Not only can it add juiciness to plant-based products, but it can also provide a unique flavor that meat-eaters crave. To learn more about the sector, we sat down with George Zhelezyni, Co-Founder and CEO of Cultimate, a Berlin-based cultivated fat brand.
Cultimate snapshot:
- Founded in 2022
- Founders include George Zhelezyni, Eugenia Sagué, and Jordi Morales-Dalmau
- Working on cultivated beef and pork fat
- HQ in Berlin
- B2B strategy
Not only does Zhelezyni share some top-notch insights about the innovative cultivated fat market, but he gives some honest advice for founders and start-ups looking to thrive in the alt-protein space.
Watch the interview below!
Bitesize insights:
- Cultivated fat can be used as a functional ingredient in plant-based products.
- Cultivated fat can be designed to contain less saturated fats and more healthy unsaturated fats than traditional animal-based fats.
- Earlier this year, Cultimate secured 2.3 million euros in seed funding.
- The future cultivated fat market will extend beyond food, into pharma and beauty too.
- The greatest challenges facing the sector right now are EU regulations, scaling up, and raising funds.
- George Zhelezyni believes that collaboration is vital in the cultivated sector.
- Before looking for funds from venture capital investors, Zhelezyni says alternative protein start-ups should look at alternative sources of capital (i.e. incubator programs and NGOs).
- He also advises that companies should focus on their minimum viable product (MVP), before looking for investment.
