Biotech firm BSF Enterprise has secured a £15m equity fundraise in a development it has hailed as a “significant milestone”.
The investment by Blackstone Mercantile Group will provide the capital required to accelerate the commercialisation of BSF’s technologies in lab-grown leather, cultivated meat, corneal repair, and culture media supplements for cells and engineered tissues.
The funds are expected to accelerate the commercial and technological roadmaps of lab-grown leather, kerato and 3D Bio-Tissues, and will support further independent fundraising activities during 2026.
The funding would also “provide the resources to allow BSF to deliver against its strategic goals to acquire, invest in, or enter joint ventures with promising complementary companies to expedite their development and time-to-market”, said CEO Che Connon.
Through 3DBT, a biotech startup, BSF has developed advanced capabilities in cell and tissue growth, including cultivated muscle, which is fundamental to alternative protein production.
The proposed fundraise would support the commercialisation of the project’s media additives, which the business said were critical to scaling cultivated meat.
Read more: Nearly half of Gen Z would eat lab-grown meat: new report
“At a group level funds will also be used to bolster our marketing activities, provide the firepower to make potential acquisitions of companies complementary to our business model, cover our foreseeable working capital requirements, and will add considerable liquidity to our stock,” said Geoff Baker, chairman of BSF Enterprise.
The company has also undertaken to seek shareholder approval for a 12:1 share consolidation, as well as for the necessary share headroom to accommodate the equity fundraiser, to be approved at a general meting on 17 December. Following the announcement, the share price dropped 60% to £1.05, at the time of writing.
Pressed for comment regarding the fall, the company said it did not comment on short-term share price fluctuations.
No comments yet