'Meat Engineering' Saltbypep Secures Pre-A Funding

Securing Quality Design Technology Using Jeju Microorganisms

Food tech startup Saltbypep announced on March 5, 2026, that it has secured Pre-Series A (Pre-A) funding. This investment round included participation from deep tech accelerator Bluepoint, Vine Ventures, KOC Partners, and VentureSquare.

Saltbypep is an engineering food tech company that goes beyond simply manufacturing or distributing meat products. It designs the flavor, texture, and quality of meat through advanced technology and predicts outcomes using data. By integrating microbiome-based aging technology with proprietary rapid freezing techniques, the company controls quality variations depending on the grade, cut, and cooking environment of raw meat.

Its core competitive edge is a quality algorithm that utilizes microorganisms originating from Jeju Island. By precisely blending and aging specific microorganisms that produce unique flavors, Saltbypep can consistently enhance the umami and tenderness of meat. This allows even mid- to low-grade raw meat to be engineered to premium taste and quality levels, enabling restaurants to maintain uniform quality while reducing their reliance on high-grade meats.

Food tech startup Saltbypep has secured Pre-Series A (Pre-A) funding. Saltbypep

Additionally, Saltbypep is applying advanced rapid freezing technology through a collaboration with global hygiene and freezing specialist Saraya. This innovation reduces juice loss from approximately 12% to less than 3%, preserving a texture similar to that of chilled meat. In markets where raw material prices fluctuate significantly, this enables strategies such as advance purchasing and aged storage, delivering cost stability.

Currently, Saltbypep serves as an Original Development Manufacturing (ODM) partner for well-known domestic brands, overseeing product development and quality standardization, while expanding its distribution to hotels, restaurants, and franchises. Building on export achievements in Hong Kong and Singapore, the company aims to grow into a global meat technology platform.

Moon Subin, Senior Investment Manager at Bluepoint, stated, "The approach of 'designing' rather than 'managing' quality is extremely rare in the meat industry. The combination of exclusive export status in Jeju and technology-based quality standardization capabilities creates a structure that is difficult to replicate in a short period of time."

Following its seed funding and selection for TIPS in 2024, Saltbypep plans to use this latest investment to accelerate export expansion and technological advancement. Saltbypep CEO Kim Youngjae commented, "We are not a company that simply sells meat; we are a technology company that designs and predicts meat quality. As an ODM partner to domestic brands and with export references, we aim to grow into a globally recognized meat technology platform."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.