Upside Foods, a cultivated meat startup, has laid off 26 employees as part of a restructuring to reduce top-heavy leadership and narrow its focus toward product launches within the next two years. This follows earlier cuts affecting 16 staff in February, when the company paused plans for a large production plant in Illinois. The layoffs come amid industry-wide challenges, including legislative bans in states like Florida and Alabama, regulatory hurdles, and a downturn in venture capital funding. Upside, one of only two U.S. firms approved to sell cultivated meat, is shifting its scaling efforts from whole-cut chicken to suspension-based products like nuggets and patés. The company, which began selling its chicken in San Francisco in July 2023, aims to preserve resources and achieve critical commercialization milestones despite macroeconomic and political uncertainties.
