The future of meat-free food products has never tasted so good, thanks to the culture-fat cultivated by Hoxton Farms.
See our guide to this year’s hottest new businesses and most exceptional founders in the complete 2026 Startups 100 index.
Founders: Ed Steele and Max Jamilly
Year founded: 2020
Website: hoxtonfarms.com
It’s a warm welcome back to the index for Hoxton Farms, as the company this year earns a well-deserved third-time entry in the Startups 100 Index. The damage done to the planet by the meat industry is a tough topic to swallow for a lot of us, but Hoxton Farms has sunk its teeth into the problem with its cruelty-free fat ingredient that’s humanely grown in a lab.
Traditional meat fat supply is currently unsustainable, and is contributing to an ongoing health crisis. That’s why the goal of Hoxton Farms to create future-proof, cruelty free fat alternatives is so vital.
Founders Ed Steele and Max Jamilly were friends since nursery school, and while they pursued different careers, there was one issue they stood united on: meat alternatives just didn’t cut the mustard. The flavours just weren’t up to par with the real McCoy, and there was always an issue of uncanny textures.
Fortunately, Steel and Jamilly turned a lemon into lemonade metaphorically: literally, they combined their different skillsets, from mathematics and synthetic biology respectively, to create an animal fat that was grown from stem cells. So real animal fat, without the animals.
Using machine-learning, Hoxton Farms is able to grow cultivated fat that swerves the unappealing plant oils that other cruelty-free options use. The problem is that plant oils melt at a rapid pace, leaving food greasy and bland.
That’s not the case with Hoxton Farm’s meat though. From its 14,000sq ft pilot facility, its “farmers” are delivering fat that’s low on harm and big on flavour. Excitingly, in 2025, Hoxton Farms announced that it has also filed for market approval in Singapore for cultivated pork fat.
Singapore is the first of multiple planned regulatory submissions across Asia, the UK, and North America, with approvals expected between late 2026 and early 2027. This will help the team to fulfill their company mission to be the global leader in cultivated fat.
To date, Hoxton Farms has raised a total of $35m to bring scalability, sustainability, and financial value to the dinner table, and it’s planning a new funding round in early 2026. It’s sustainable, cost effective, and so tasty you just might even confuse it for the real deal.
View the full Startups 100 Index for 2026
1. Omnea
2. HIVED
3. MAGIC AI
4. OXCCU
5. Lightyear
6. Neuranics
7. Hormona
8. Burbank
9. Better Dairy
10. Lenkie Technologies
11. Userled
12. Hoxton Farms
13. Rensair
14. PulpaTronics
15. TradeKart
16. 32Co
17. Carmoola
18. cheqd
19. Currence
20. Adamo Foods
21. Bold Bean Co
22. Beams Renovation
23. Pan Galactic
24. Capi Money
25. Spotted Zebra
26. ANTHROTEK
27. Unravel
28. Perci Health
29. Untap Health
30. Hair Syrup
31. Connect Earth
32. spacebands
33. Unfabled
34. Lightning Reach
35. STOCKED
36. Embeddable
37. XR Therapeutics
38. Literal Labs
39. Scooch
40. Openr
41. Fibe Limited
42. Inicio AI
43. Peachies
44. Better Nature
45. Ctrl Alt
46. Resting Reef
47. Nila
48. ROXFIT
49. Finmile
50. NavLive
51. Volunteero
52. Inntelo AI
53. Zonova
54. A&B Smart Materials
55. Ethicronics
56. Treeapp
57. kennek
58. Soil Benchmark
59. Vox Aeris
60. Asan Cup
61. Nuuri
62. Mindstone
63. MYNDUP
64. Enbiosis Biotechnology
65. JUX Food
66. Danu Robotics
67. Wylde Market
68. Air Aware Labs
69. Mimicrete Ltd
70. ALYVE
71. Happl
72. Living Things
73. Grub Club Pets
74. Mealia
75. PetProov
76. Lylo Products
77. Chest
78. ZIM Connections
79. Uptime Labs
80. Teal
81. Zero Fintech
82. Micro Thermal Energy
83. Kanjo
84. Merlin Cloud
85. My Skin Feels
86. Eleria
87. Cashblack
88. RevvedUp
89. Cosysense
90. SuperFi
91. Loom
92. Legacy Compass
93. Meshed
94. SWURF
95. Main Squeeze
96. Sampl Technologies
97. Over the Moo
98. Pioneering People
99. Bikebook
100. Recondition
