Announcing two fat-tastic senior hires

At Hoxton Farms, we are on a mission to cultivate an irresistibly fatty future. We may not have a barn and bales of hay, but just like farmers, we’re hands-on and elbow-deep in harnessing natural processes to make food that’s tasty, nutritious and sustainable. That’s why, at our farm, we pride ourselves on our multidisciplinary team that includes highly skilled scientists, engineers, chefs, and operations experts, all of whom share a passion for food.

Two new senior technical hires will bring their invaluable experience in cellular agriculture to our team. These Hoxton Farmers will help us to achieve our mission by optimising the production of our juicy cultivated fat and developing our novel scaling system.

Welcome, Dr Vítor Espírito Santo and Nadav Tal

Vítor and Nadav join Hoxton Farms from leading cultivated meat companies in the US and Israel – and we’re delighted that they have chosen to join us in London’s thriving future-food scene.

Vítor joins as Head of Cell Biology, having previously been the Senior Director of Cellular Agriculture at GOOD Meat in San Francisco. He brings fifteen years of experience in biomedical research and a PhD in tissue engineering. At GOOD Meat, Vítor led the team responsible for the world’s first regulatory approval of cultivated meat in Singapore and its subsequent authorisation in the US.

Nadav, our new Systems Engineering Lead, joins us to focus on bioreactor development. Before Hoxton Farms, Nadav was Director of R&D Engineering at Aleph Farms – a cultivated meat company based in Israel. At Aleph Farms, Nadav developed proprietary tissue bioreactors specifically engineered for cellular agriculture. He previously worked at TransAlgae, where he designed novel bioreactors and established an industrial microalgae farm that is active today.

Vítor and Nadav come with decades of experience developing and scaling novel foods. We can’t wait for them to get started (and know they’re eager to sink their teeth into some juicy challenges too).

Cells in the City

Our central London location has been key to the Hoxton Farms story from day one. Our co-founders, Ed and Max, grew up together here and named us after a London neighbourhood. Hoxton is a bustling area in the East End that’s known for cobbled streets and creative startups. Not the typical location for a farm, but we’re not a typical company.

Being in London gives us a special ability to attract the best talent in the world. The weather might not match Israel or California, but the food scene is unrivalled (nothing beats the shoyu tonkotsu at Monohon Ramen). Our team now boasts over 20 nationalities and we all call London home.

“I’m excited to move to London and work with an excellent team to develop Hoxton Farms’ groundbreaking R&D into new consumer products built on cultivated fat. Innovation around cultivated meat and fat is advancing rapidly, but lowering costs and gaining approval for these novel foods are the next areas of focus. The combination of plant-based protein and cultivated fat is a fascinating innovation that will create huge commercial opportunities for food companies looking to provide eco-conscious and flexitarian consumers with delicious meat alternatives.” - Vítor

These new Hoxton Farmers will benefit from our sparkling new 14,000 square foot office and pilot facility in the heart of East London to advance our research, scale up production and develop prototypes with customers. 

“Our recently opened pilot facility is a statement of our intent to scale up our production and bring world-class talent to the UK. We’re excited to welcome Vítor and Nadav to our incredible team. They both bring unparalleled experience in the cultivated meat ecosystem, and working with them will accelerate our ability to realise our commercial goals over the coming years” – Max, co-founder