Ever After Foods buys Fishway to deepen cultivated pet food push
Bottom line
Ever After Foods is expanding beyond cultivated meat into cultivated fish through the acquisition of Belgian startup Fishway, a move that adds aquatic cell lines, animal-component-free media expertise, and a European operating base to its platform. The companies said the deal is meant to broaden Ever After Foods’ manufacturing capabilities across species and applications, including pet food, while a separate $2 million investment is intended to support commercialization. Fishway had already been positioning pet food as its first target market, saying in June 2026 that pet food offered a less complex regulatory path than human food as it scaled production. (seafoodnews.com)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals and the pet food industry, the acquisition is another sign that cultivated ingredients for companion animal diets are moving from proof-of-concept toward manufacturing and regulatory execution. Fishway brings cultivated fish biomass know-how and animal-free media development, while Ever After Foods brings a scale-up platform it says is designed to lower production costs and support commercial manufacturing. That combination could matter if cultivated proteins are to become viable ingredients for pet food formulators looking at supply resilience, novel protein sourcing, or future sustainability claims. (seafoodnews.com)
What to watch: Watch for details on commercialization partners, regulatory positioning in Europe, and whether Ever After Foods names pet food customers or pilot launches in the next 12 to 18 months. (voka.be)
Ever After Foods has acquired Fishway, a Belgian food-tech company developing cultivated fish biomass, in a deal that extends the Israeli company’s platform from cultivated meat into fish and seafood applications. The August 17 announcement also came with $2 million in new investment, which the company said will help fund commercialization as it builds a broader cultivated protein manufacturing platform that includes pet food. (seafoodnews.com)
The move builds on Ever After Foods’ recent push to position itself less as a branded cultivated meat producer and more as a B2B technology platform. In June 2024, parent company Pluri said Ever After Foods had secured $10 million in strategic investment and had expanded its licensing scope to include cultivated fish. In February 2025, Ever After Foods also announced a collaboration with Bühler aimed at bringing commercial-scale cultivated meat production systems to market, underscoring its focus on industrial equipment and scale-up rather than finished consumer products. (globenewswire.com)
Fishway adds capabilities that fit that strategy. Reporting on the acquisition said Ever After Foods gains Fishway’s aquatic cell biology portfolio, animal-component-free media development expertise, and scientific team, while Belgium becomes its first meaningful operational foothold outside Israel and a European center of excellence for cultivated fish capabilities. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Fishway had previously said it spent its early years developing cell lines, feed media, and production methods, then worked to reduce its cost per kilogram from €300,000 to €200 as it prepared to scale from a 3-liter bioreactor to 1,000 liters over roughly 18 months. (seafoodnews.com)
Fishway’s own comments before the acquisition are especially relevant for the pet food sector. In a June 12, 2026 profile, CEO Annelies Bogaerts said the company was scaling first for pet food producers because cultivated fish for human consumption would face the EU’s novel foods pathway, while pet food would fall under animal by-products rules that the company viewed as less complex. European Commission materials confirm that pet food is governed through the EU animal by-products framework rather than the novel foods regime used for human food. (voka.be)
Industry context suggests this is part of a broader pattern: companies developing cultivated proteins often see pet food as an earlier commercial entry point than human food. That’s because the regulatory route can be narrower, and because pet food can absorb novel ingredients in formats where whole-cut texture is less critical. At the same time, the sector still faces open questions around safety disclosure, ingredient acceptance, production economics, and how quickly manufacturing claims translate from pilot scale to repeatable commercial supply. A recent preprint on cultivated pet food transparency argued that these ingredients may enter some European and UK pet food markets without ingredient-level premarket safety review, increasing pressure on companies to provide voluntary safety data. (voka.be)
Why it matters: For veterinarians, nutrition companies, and pet food formulators, this deal is less about immediate product availability and more about infrastructure. If cultivated ingredients are going to become meaningful in companion animal nutrition, companies need scalable bioprocessing, species-specific cell lines, and lower-cost animal-free media. Ever After Foods says its platform can materially improve production efficiency, and Fishway brings a fish-specific development pipeline that had already been aimed at pet food. That could make cultivated seafood ingredients more plausible for future use in specialized diets, sustainability-oriented formulations, or products designed to reduce reliance on conventional marine inputs, though commercial viability and regulatory acceptance remain unresolved. (voka.be)
There’s also a practical industry signal here: cultivated protein companies are increasingly organizing around manufacturing platforms, partnerships, and ingredient channels instead of betting only on direct-to-consumer launches. For veterinary professionals, that means the important developments may show up first in supply chain announcements, regulatory interpretations, and pilot ingredient partnerships rather than on shelf. (globenewswire.com)
What to watch: The next milestones are likely to be regulatory clarification for pet food use in Europe, evidence that Fishway’s fish biomass can be produced consistently at larger bioreactor scale, and any disclosure of pilot customers in pet food. A key timeline marker is Fishway’s previously stated goal of scaling from 3 liters to 1,000 liters within about 18 months from June 2026, which would put meaningful progress into late 2027 if execution stays on track. (voka.be)