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Uncommon
Cultivated pork products developed using proprietary RNA technology
About Uncommon
Uncommon, formerly Higher Steaks, is a biotechnology company focused on producing cultivated pork meat. Founded in Cambridge, UK, in 2017 by chemical engineer Benjamina Bollag and Dr. Ruth Faram, the company aims to provide a sustainable and ethical alternative to conventional meat production. Bollag, serving as CEO, leads the company's mission to address global health and food security challenges.
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The company leverages a patent-pending RNA technology to create cultivated bacon and pork belly from a small sample of pig cells. This approach reprograms the cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which can then be differentiated into muscle and fat. Uncommon states this method enables it to reach price parity with conventional pork more quickly, scale faster, and create products without gene editing, antibiotics, or toxic small molecules. The technology is based on Nobel Prize-winning findings and is designed to accelerate the cell differentiation process and lower production costs.
Uncommon operates on a business-to-business model, with plans to commercialize its products through partnerships with food distributors and retailers. The company has raised significant capital to scale production at its pilot manufacturing facility in Cambridge and to pursue regulatory approval in markets such as the UK, Singapore, and the US. As of June 2023, the company had secured $30 million in a Series A funding round led by Balderton Capital and Lowercarbon Capital, bringing its total funding to approximately $35 million.
At a glance
- Status
- Operational
- Founded
- 2017
- Headquarters
- Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Employees
- 8
- Open positions
- None listed
- Dealroom signal
- 60.3/100
- Sub-industry
- Innovative Food
- Sector
- Food, Biotechnology, Nutrition, Chemical, Alternative Protein, Meat Substitute, Sustainable Development Goals, Nutrition Solution, Lab-Grown
- Technology
- Hardware, Deep Tech
- Business model
- Manufacturing
- Client focus
- b2b, b2c
Knowledge graph
More headlines
Funding history
Company financing events and reported valuations.
| Deal type | Date | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EARLY VC✓Equity / VC | Nov 2024 | $0 | — | Global Brain Corporation | ↗ |
| SERIES A✓Equity / VC | Jun 2023 | $30M | $120M | Redalpine · Sam Altman · East Alpha · Dr. Miray Zaki | ↗ |
Growth signals
Latest recorded traffic for Uncommon is 630 monthly website visits, down 51.5% over the last three months. Uncommon's team declined 38.5% over the past year.
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Investments and acquisitions
Recent portfolio relationships for companies that also act as investors or acquirers.
Investors
From Dealroom's funding and investor records, grouped by the round each investor first entered.
Seed1 investor entered at this stage
Apollo projects
Series A8 investors entered at this stage
Lowercarbon Capital
Balderton Capital
Redalpine
Sam Altman
East Alpha
Dr. Miray Zaki
Max Altman
Global Brain Corporation
Other known investors9 additional known investors
The Pearse Lyons Accelerator
Angel Academe
Cambridge Agritech
Danielle Walsh
GROW
Magda Lukaszewicz
MicroVentures
MK Venture Capital
Patrick Schneider-Sikorsky
Source: Dealroom Talent Intelligence.
Global footprint
team presence
Market sentiment
An AI-synthesised read of the highest-engagement posts about Uncommon on X, ranked by likes and reposts, corporate channels excluded.
Reading the room on X — pulling top posts and synthesizing themes…
Source: X recent search ranked by engagement (likes + retweets) · Synthesis by Claude · Cached for 1 hour
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