Meatly has moved into Grapht Works, Imperial College London’s pilot and advanced manufacturing site in the Old Oak Innovation Cluster. The London relocation places the cultivated pet-food company at a facility designed to support businesses shifting from research and development towards manufacturing.
The move is a preparatory step, not the opening of a completed large-scale plant. Meatly and Imperial describe the relocation as part of the company’s plan to scale production and begin production runs in 2027. The company’s chief executive, Owen Ensor, has said it intends to become fully operational next year and create what he calls Europe’s largest cultivated-meat facility. That remains a forward-looking company plan; the announcement does not establish that the facility is already built, operating at full scale or producing commercial volumes.
A manufacturing base at Old Oak
Grapht Works is a pilot and demonstration manufacturing site within Imperial’s Old Oak Innovation Cluster, itself part of the wider WestTech London ecosystem. The facility offers industrial space where science and technology businesses can develop, test and scale production processes. Its stated role is to bridge a gap that can arise when a company has moved beyond laboratory research but is not yet ready to operate a full commercial factory.
For Meatly, the new address is connected to a specific operational ambition: moving cultivated meat for pet food towards repeatable production at larger scale. The company develops cultivated animal cells and associated processes for pet-food applications. Its approach includes company-developed bioreactors and culture medium intended to support commercially viable manufacturing. These tools are part of the planned scale-up; future costs and production performance remain to be demonstrated.
Grapht Works is not described as a Meatly-only factory. Imperial presents it as shared infrastructure for a growing group of businesses working in areas that include advanced materials, robotics, engineering biology and industrial automation. Other businesses named as members include Solena Materials and Aed Energy. Meatly’s move therefore adds a cultivated-food company to a broader manufacturing cluster rather than creating the cluster itself.
Funding and the next stage
The relocation follows a £10.4 million Series A funding round announced in May. Imperial says the funding supports Meatly’s move towards scaling. The amount is financing raised, not proof that the planned facility has been completed or that the company has achieved commercial-scale output.
Meatly was founded in 2022 and focuses on cultivated meat for pet food. The company received UK regulatory authorisation in 2024 and launched a cultivated pet-food product in 2025. Imperial describes it as Europe’s first company to sell cultivated meat. That earlier market activity gives context to the move: the company is seeking to progress from an initial product launch towards a manufacturing operation intended to supply a larger market.
Ensor has framed the change as a step towards being fully operational in 2027 and beginning large-scale production. The timetable is prospective. The university announcement does not provide a confirmed opening day, final facility capacity, a schedule of production runs, or a commitment that every planned milestone will be achieved on time. These details should be distinguished from the completed relocation and the already-announced funding round.
Why the site matters
Moving from research to production can require equipment, space and processes that differ from those used to develop a product in a laboratory. A pilot and demonstration facility can provide room to test manufacturing methods and build experience before a company commits to a larger production footprint. In this case, Imperial sees the move as evidence that specialist industrial space can help a technology business remain in London as it advances towards production.
The announcement also reflects a local economic ambition: retaining manufacturing capability, jobs and related activity in the capital and the wider WestTech London area. Those are expected benefits, not outcomes quantified in the announcement. The immediate, verifiable development is narrower but concrete: Meatly has relocated to Grapht Works, where it intends to prepare for its next manufacturing phase.
The coming period will show whether the new base helps turn that plan into operating capacity. For now, the 2027 production target remains a company objective, while the move into Imperial’s Old Oak facility is the completed step announced this week.
