Uma Valeti is an Indian born cardiologist, entrepreneur, and the founder and CEO of UPSIDE Foods, a company developing cultivated meat produced directly from animal cells. Valeti grew up on the outskirts of Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, India, in a family with a medical and scientific background. His father was a veterinarian, while his mother taught physics. He later pursued medicine at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, commonly known as JIPMER, in Puducherry, India. His education eventually took him outside India and into the United States, where he built his medical career.

Valeti's journey to the United States was not immediate. In an account featured in the documentary Meat the Future, he explained that he initially wanted to train in cardiology and cardiac surgery at Mayo Clinic. After multiple visa rejections, he went to Jamaica and worked there before reapplying to train in the United States. He eventually continued his medical training in the United States, completing residencies associated with Wayne State University and the State University of New York at Buffalo before undertaking fellowship training at Mayo Clinic. His professional training included cardiology, interventional cardiology, and advanced cardiovascular imaging.

At Mayo Clinic, Valeti worked with stem cell technology, an experience that became significant to the direction of his later career. During his medical practice in Minnesota, he worked with stem cells in cardiovascular medicine, including research and treatment involving the regeneration of heart muscle. His experience with growing and working with cells led him to consider whether similar biological principles could be applied outside medicine. The question eventually became whether meat could be produced from animal cells without raising and slaughtering an entire animal.

The idea developed into a company. In 2015, Valeti co founded what was initially called Memphis Meats with Nicholas Genovese and Will Clem. The company focused on developing meat grown from animal cells rather than obtained through conventional animal agriculture. Memphis Meats later became known as UPSIDE Foods. Valeti's transition from cardiology to food technology represented a significant change in his professional career, but the scientific foundation of his new work was connected to his previous experience with cells and regenerative medicine.

UPSIDE Foods developed cultivated meat by taking cells from animals and growing them in controlled environments. The objective is to produce meat without requiring the conventional process of raising and slaughtering animals for meat. The company has worked on cultivated chicken, beef, and duck, and Stanford Medicine identifies UPSIDE as having achieved several milestones in the development of cultivated meat, including producing multiple species and becoming the first cultivated meat company to have a product cleared for human consumption by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

One of the company's most significant milestones came in 2022, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration completed its premarket consultation for UPSIDE's cultivated chicken and issued a letter stating that it had no questions regarding the company's conclusion that the product was safe. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided the approvals necessary for the company's cultivated chicken to be sold in the United States. UPSIDE subsequently served its cultivated chicken at Bar Crenn, the San Francisco restaurant operated by chef Dominique Crenn. These regulatory steps represented an important development for the cultivated meat industry in the United States.

Building UPSIDE Foods required Valeti to operate across medicine, biotechnology, food production, and entrepreneurship. The company attracted investment from a range of organizations and individuals, including Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Tyson Foods, Cargill, Whole Foods, SoftBank and Temasek. UPSIDE has stated that it raised more than $600 million to develop its technology and production capabilities. The company has also worked toward increasing the scale at which cultivated meat can be produced, a major challenge for the emerging industry.

Valeti's work has received recognition beyond the food technology sector. Stanford Medicine describes him as an adjunct professor in Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford School of Medicine. He has also held leadership roles connected to organizations including the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. In 2019, Foreign Policy named him a "Global Thinker of the Decade." He has subsequently spoken about cultivated meat and entrepreneurship at platforms including the Aspen Ideas Festival and SXSW.

Today, Uma Valeti continues to lead UPSIDE Foods as its CEO and founder. His career connects two fields that might initially appear unrelated: cardiovascular medicine and food technology. His experience working with cells in medicine helped inform his interest in cultivated meat, while his decision to leave a medical career for an emerging technology sector placed him at the center of the cultivated meat industry. From growing up in India to completing advanced medical training in the United States and founding a company pursuing a different way of producing meat, Valeti's career reflects the contribution of immigrant professionals to scientific research, entrepreneurship, and technological innovation.