Meati’s Idle Fermentation Tanks Are Headed to India in a $75,000 Deal

Ayana Bio and Zenfold Sustainable Technologies have purchased fermentation equipment from Meati Foods' defunct plant in Thornton, Colorado for $75,000. The equipment, including twelve 25,000-liter tanks and seed trains, totaling 300,000 liters of capacity, will be shipped to Zenfold's sites in India for operations in the first half of 2027. The companies plan to use the tanks for plant cell culture and specialty chemicals production, rather than restarting operations in Colorado.

Ayana Bio specializes in growing plant cells in bioreactors to produce high-value compounds, while Zenfold Sustainable Technologies works in specialty and fine chemicals using green chemistry and synthetic biology. By acquiring Meati's fermentation assets at a low cost and relocating them to India, both companies aim to accelerate their pilot and production timelines for plant cell bioactives at commercial scale. This move provides an opportunity for them to validate new processes and offer the pilot capacity to other plant cell culture companies.