Most investors are aware of Rolls-Royce‘s incredible ascent — shares of the FTSE 100 engine maker have rocketed 68% so far this year. However, Agronomics (LSE: ANIC) is doing even better. This under-the-radar penny stock has reached 7p, meaning it’s up around 92% in 2025!
The question now is, can it keep going higher? Let’s take a look at the firm’s prospects.
Cellular agriculture
Agronomics is an investment company with a £75m market cap that backs start-ups in the field of clean food, especially those pioneering cultivated meat technology. Think lab-grown meat, fish, or pet food. This makes it a unique investment vehicle.
Clean food has the potential to address many of the world’s most pressing problems, including greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution and shortages, deforestation, misallocation of land use, ocean health, animal cruelty, antibiotic resistance, and climate change in general.
Agronomics
The big idea is that these developing technologies are tapping into long-term trends like climate change — animal agriculture is a major emitter of greenhouse gases — and ethical concerns around animal cruelty and overfishing.
Additionally, food security has become a major political issue. The Ukraine war in 2022, for example, sent food prices through the roof across Europe. Consequently, governments are looking for ways to avoid more outside inflationary shocks. This bodes well for regulatory approvals in the cultivated meat space.
Portfolio
Agronomics has screened over 400 start-ups, investing only in what it considers the most promising. The portfolio holds around 22 today, with the largest being Liberation Labs, SuperMeat, and BlueNalu.
Now, these names probably aren’t familiar to most readers, and that’s the point. They’re small firms today that could become much larger in future, driving up the value of Agronomics’ portfolio in the process.
Top 10 holdings (as of May 2025)
| Company | Weighting | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Liberation Labs | 22.9% | Precision fermentation infrastructure in the US. |
| SuperMeat | 10.1% | Cultivated poultry meat. |
| BlueNalu | 8.6% | Cultivated seafood like bluefin tuna. |
| Meatable | 7.9% | Cultivated pork. |
| Solar Foods | 7.4% | Protein from CO₂ and electricity, used in food and pet products. |
| Onego Bio | 6.5% | Egg proteins via fermentation. |
| Formo | 6.3% | Precision-fermented cheese protein. |
| All G Foods | 5.0% | Casein proteins for dairy alternatives via fermentation. |
| Clean Food Group | 4.8% | Palm oil alternatives to reduce deforestation. |
| EVERY | 4.3% | Egg proteins via fermentation. |
In February, Meatly became the world’s first company to supply lab-grown pet food. These dog treats went on sale at Pets at Home. Based on recent valuation calculations, Agronomics has already made more than four times its original investment on Meatly.
Meanwhile, BluNalu recently expanded a partnership with the owner of Birds Eye to bring cell-cultivated seafood to the UK and Europe. It has also applied for regulatory approval in Singapore and the US.
High-risk stock
Now, there are myriad risks here. The most obvious is that while cultivated meat is real meat — it’s made from genuine animal cells, with the same muscle fibres, proteins, and fats — consumer adoption might be weak.
In particular, some may be uneasy about meat grown in a bioreactor, even though many have no idea how or where their regular meat is produced. Also, some US states, including Texas, have banned lab-grown meat.
Finally, the majority of the companies Agronomics has backed are pre-revenue, and will need regular injections of capital. Some may never scale commercially, so the aim here is for a small handful of asymmetric winners to emerge.
50% discount
In May, the firm had unrealised gains of £40.4m from £109.1m of capital invested, with £3.8m in cash. This indicates that the shares are trading at a roughly 50% discount to net asset value.
The future path is uncertain. But if just a few holdings succeed, the share price could go much higher. Risk-tolerant investors might want to consider the stock at 7p, but they’ll need to buckle up for volatility.
