Goldman Sachs Names UPSIDE Foods CEO Uma Valeti an Exceptional Entrepreneur of 2026

Uma Valeti, CEO of cultivated meat company UPSIDE Foods, was named one of Goldman Sachs Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs of 2026. The recognition highlights her leadership in the alternative protein industry.

Goldman Sachs has named Uma Valeti, founder and chief executive of UPSIDE Foods, one of its Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs of 2026. The award was presented on October 14 at the bank’s Builders and Innovators Summit in Healdsburg, California. The two-day gathering brought together founders and chief executives from multiple industries. David Solomon, chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs, said the leaders at UPSIDE Foods are proving that agility and vision can be the ultimate competitive advantages. He added they are not simply building a great enterprise but redefining what is possible in their industry. Valeti trained as a cardiologist and worked with patients’ stem cells to regenerate damaged heart tissue during a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic. He founded the company in 2015 as Memphis Meats before it rebranded as UPSIDE Foods in 2021. In January the company launched Lucius Labs, a spinoff selling cell culture media to the life sciences sector. The venture draws on expertise built during cultivated meat development. UPSIDE Foods is also contesting state-level bans on cultivated meat in court, including cases in Florida and Texas where it filed suit alongside Wildtype. Valeti said he started the company because he loves meat and believed it could be made without killing animals. He said the science has been proven and the focus is now on bringing production to scale through American ingenuity and manufacturing. He added the ambition goes well beyond one product and the world needs more ways to produce great food, not fewer.

Read source: Cultivated X