Cultured meat company Upside Foods has cut its workforce as the industry continues to battle lawmaker bans and a significant drop in venture capital funding. In an email to employees, Upside CEO Uma Valeti wrote that 26 people would be leaving the company and that the executive and leadership teams would be restructured to “reduce overstaffed structures.”
“We must now focus on a tighter set of priorities that will pave the way for our product launches over the next two years,” Valeti wrote in the email seen by WIRED. “We need to deliver on the work that remains to be done, especially on critical milestones that have not yet been achieved or have been delayed.”
Upside is one of the best-funded startups in the cultured meat industry and one of only two firms authorized to sell its product in the United States. In February, WIRED revealed that the startup had put on hold plans to build a large cultured meat plant in Illinois and had made “selective role eliminations” and “other changes” that would affect 16 employees.
In the most recent email, Valeti wrote that the company was pausing its “large-scale tissue program.” The company began selling its whole cut chicken in July 2023 at the Bar Crenn restaurant in San Francisco, but since this initial launch Upside has indicated Instead of full-texture fabrics, it is focusing its scaling efforts on so-called “suspension” products, better suited to producing chicken nuggets, pâtés and other minced meat products.
In the email, Valeti also mentioned the difficulties his industry is currently facing. “Uncertainty related to political, regulatory, and macroeconomic hurdles requires us to be even more deliberate and mindful with our approach and resources,” he wrote. In May, Florida and Alabama passed laws banning the sale of cultured meat in those states.
“Upside is focused on our next chapter of scale and commercialization. To remain agile in the face of an uncertain macroeconomic environment and preserve the resources necessary to achieve our goals, we made the difficult decision to eliminate a number of positions,” interim chief communications officer Melissa Musiker said in a statement to WIRED. “We are deeply grateful for the hard work, commitment, and dedication of our departing team members and remain steadfast in our mission to bring cultured meat to the world.”
On June 27, a few days before Florida’s ban went into effect, Upside hosted a public tasting of its chicken in Miami. Outside the event, a mobile billboard Protests against cultured meat directed people to a website backed by the Center for Environment and Wellbeing, a group linked to the public relations firm Berman and Company, which has A long story to support non-profit organizations that defend the interests of the food and beverage industry.
Steve Molino, an investor at Clear Current Capital, a venture capital firm focused on sustainable food that is not investing in Upside, says it’s a good sign that Upside is adjusting its strategy to take these hurdles into account. “Too often we see companies waiting until it’s too late to make difficult changes,” he says.