Wildtype (company)
{{short description|American food technology company}}
{{use mdy dates|date=February 2022}}
{{use American English|date=February 2022}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Wildtype
| logo = Logo_of_Wildtype.svg
| logo_alt =
| type = Privately held company
| industry = Food technology
| founded = 2016
| founders = Aryé Elfenbein and Justin Kolbeck
| location_city = San Francisco, California
| location_country = United States
| website = {{URL|wildtypefoods.com}}
}}
File:Arye Elfenbein of Wildtype at New Harvest 2022 (04576).jpg conference]]
Wildtype is an American seafood company that produces cultivated seafood from fish cells. Its headquarters is located in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco, California{{Cite news |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2021/06/25/wildtype-seafood-production-cultured-altmeat.html |title=Sushi grown in a lab? A S.F. startup just unveiled the world's first cell-cultured seafood production facility. |author=Alex Barreira |work=San Francisco Business Times |date=June 25, 2021 |access-date=December 6, 2021}} and includes a former microbrewery that has been converted into Wildtype's first Fishery where their cultivated seafood is produced. Wildtype's first product is cultivated Pacific salmon that will offer several benefits when compared to conventionally-harvested fish.{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51657573 |title=Could synthetic fish be a better catch of the day? |author=David Silverberg |work=BBC News |date=March 24, 2020 |access-date=December 6, 2021}}
History
= Origins =
Aryé Elfenbein (a PhD cardiologist) and Justin Kolbeck co-founded Wildtype{{Cite news |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2021/10/14/cell-cultivated-fda-regulations-meat-alt-market.html |title=The cell-cultivated meat revolution is starting, and these Bay Area startups are ready |author=Alex Barreira |work=San Francisco Business Times |date=October 14, 2021 |access-date=December 6, 2021}}{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/business/fake-fish-impossible-foods.html |title=The Fish Is Boneless. (Fishless, Too.) |author=David Yaffe-Bellany |work=The New York Times |date=July 10, 2019 |access-date=December 6, 2021}} in 2016.{{Cite web |url=https://thespoon.tech/wild-type-debuts-new-cultured-salmon-in-largest-tasting-of-lab-grown-meat/ |title=Wild Type Debuts New Cultured Salmon in Largest Tasting of Lab-Grown Meat |author=Catherine Lamb |work=The Spoon |date=June 14, 2019 |access-date=December 6, 2021}} They started exploring funding possibilities in 2015, but after their applications for several government science grants yielded no results, they opted for venture capital instead.{{Cite magazine |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/163554/lab-meat-save-planet |title=Lab to Table |author=Kate Aronoff |magazine=New Republic |date=September 29, 2021 |access-date=December 6, 2021}} After raising a $3.5 million seed round in 2018, Wildtype launched its research and development.
= Proof of concept =
In June 2019, the company held a tasting at a restaurant in Portland, Oregon, where guests were served an array of dishes made with Wildtype's first cultivated salmon prototype. At the time, it took them 3.5 weeks to create the pound of salmon that was consumed at the tasting; the cost of producing just the spicy salmon roll was about 200 U.S. dollars. The company is working to bring down production costs to be competitive with conventional wild and farmed salmon.
= Pilot plant =
On June 24, 2021, Wildtype's pilot plant opened in San Francisco. At the time the startup had raised $16 million in funding. As of October 2021, it was capable of producing 50,000 pounds (22,680 kilograms) of salmon per year, which it claimed was scalable to 200,000 pounds (90,718 kilograms) a year.
= Regulatory approval and market entry =
On May 28, 2025, Wildtype obtained regulatory approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to sell its cultivated coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) product on the U.S. market.{{cite web |last=Mridul |first=Anay |title=Wildtype Cultivated Salmon Gets FDA Approval, Now on US Menus |website=Green Queen |date=4 June 2025 |url=https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/wildtype-lab-grown-salmon-meat-fda-approved-cultivated-seafood/ |access-date=9 July 2025}} With that, Wildtype became the first start-up to be permitted to sell cultivated seafood in the United States, and a few days later, it was on the menu at the Kann restaurant of Gregory Gourdet in Portland, Oregon.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{official|https://wildtypefoods.com}}
{{Cultured meat startups}}
Category:Biotechnology companies of the United States