Cell Based Milk
Industry & regulation

Cell-based milk companies to watch

A small group of startups is racing to bring cell-cultured milk to market. Here's who they are and where each one stands.

Updated 5 min readBy the Cell Based Milk team
Illustration of a bioreactor tank with milk drops

Key takeaways

  • Brown Foods (US) and Opalia (Canada) are the most visible cell-based cow's milk companies, both making whole milk.
  • Opalia has paid pilots with dairy companies and targets market entry around 2028.
  • Brown Foods has said it is aiming for a market pilot in late 2026.
  • Several companies focus on human milk for infant nutrition, a slower and more tightly regulated path.

Cell-based milk is still a young industry, made up of a handful of startups rather than big brands. This guide covers the companies working on cell-cultured milk, meaning milk made by mammary cells. (For microbe-made dairy proteins, see cell-based milk vs. precision fermentation.)

How to read this page: Startup timelines change often. Each entry notes when its key details were reported. If you spot something out of date, let us know.

Cow’s milk

Brown Foods

  • Based in: Boston, with operations in India
  • Founded: 2021, by friends who met at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
  • Product: UnReal Milk, a whole cow’s milk made from bovine mammary cells
  • Funding: about $2.36 million in seed funding from investors including Y Combinator and AgFunder

In February 2025, Brown Foods announced what it called “the world’s first lab-made whole cow milk.” The company said testing at the Whitehead Institute found the major dairy proteins, milk fats and carbohydrates, which it said make up 99% of conventional milk’s composition. It estimates an 82% smaller carbon footprint, 90% less water and 95% less land than dairy, figures that come from the company rather than independent study.

Status: The company planned consumer tastings for late 2025 and a market pilot in late 2026. Coverage in AgDaily reported US taste tests had begun, and a November 2025 report said the company planned to rely on GRAS self-affirmation rather than wait for full FDA review. (Reported February and November 2025.)

Opalia

  • Based in: Montreal, Canada
  • Founded: 2020, by Jennifer Côté (CEO) and Lucas House (CTO)
  • Product: Whole cow’s milk from an immortalized bovine mammary cell line, for use as milk or as a base for butter, cream, cheese and yogurt
  • Funding: about US$5.3 million raised in total, including a 2026 round led by Nàdarra Ventures

Opalia is notable for selling to the dairy industry rather than straight to consumers. In 2025 it signed a two-year paid pilot with Dutch dairy ingredient supplier Hoogwegt, starting in 2026, and it reports a paid pilot with the Canadian division of a major global dairy company. The company has identified growth media as its main cost driver.

Status: Filing first for regulatory approval in Canada, then the US, with Asia and Europe to follow. Target market entry: 2028. (Reported April 2026.)

Wilk

  • Based in: Rehovot, Israel
  • Formerly: Biomilk; listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
  • Focus: Cell-cultured milk components, especially milk fat, for both cow’s milk and human milk applications

Wilk announced in 2022 a project to make what it called the world’s first yogurt using cell-cultured milk fat, and it received a $2 million investment from Coca-Cola Israel in 2021. Its strategy has focused on high-value components rather than whole drinking milk. (Reported 2022; Wilk was still listed among active cell-based dairy companies in April 2026.)

Others to watch

A 2026 Green Queen roundup listed several other companies working on cell-based dairy:

  • Accellta (Israel)
  • Senara (Europe)

Human milk and infant nutrition

BIOMILQ

  • Based in: Durham, North Carolina
  • Founded by: Leila Strickland and Michelle Egger
  • Product: Cell-cultured human milk made from human mammary cells
  • Funding: $21 million Series A in 2021, backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures

BIOMILQ was one of the first companies to make cell-cultured human milk components. In 2022, it projected reaching the market in three to five years, while noting that it couldn’t fully replicate every component of breast milk. (Reported 2022; check the company’s site for its latest status.)

Nūmi and 108Labs

Nūmi (France) is developing cultivated breast milk, and 108Labs (US) is working on cell-based infant formula, according to the same 2026 Green Queen roundup.

Read more in our guide to cell-cultured breast milk.

A company that changed course: TurtleTree

TurtleTree, founded in Singapore in 2019, was once among the best-known cell-based milk startups. It went on to make a precision-fermented protein, lactoferrin, its first commercial product, and received an FDA “no questions” letter for it in 2025. Read the full story in our TurtleTree profile.

What to watch next

  • First consumer tastings and pilots. Independent reviews of taste and performance will be a key milestone.
  • Regulatory filings. The first approvals in Canada or the US would set the template for everyone else.
  • State bans. Mississippi banned cell-cultured dairy from July 2026. Whether other states follow could shape where products launch.
  • Cost breakthroughs. Cheaper growth media is the key to competitive pricing.
  • Dairy industry partnerships. Deals like Opalia’s with Hoogwegt suggest the first products may reach you as ingredients in cheese or other dairy, not as a carton of milk.

We update this page as companies announce news. See also when you can buy cell-based milk.

Sources

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