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November 26, 2021
5 minutes read

Alt-Meat Maker Impossible Foods Raises $500M In Fresh Funding

A leading maker of plant-based meat substitutes, Impossible Foods, has obtained a fresh cash infusion from VCs. It has raised $500mn…

A leading maker of plant-based meat substitutes, Impossible Foods, has obtained a fresh cash infusion from VCs. It has raised $500mn in new funding, bringing the total amount of funding it has raised since inception to $2bn.

The latest round was provided entirely by existing investors doubling down on Impossible Foods. Mirae Asset Global, a Korean investment firm, led the round and was joined by other unnamed existing investors.

It’s evident that investors are longing for Impossible Foods, a leading brand in the nascent market for plant-based meat substitutes. There’s clearly huge potential for plant-based meat substitutes, driven by an increasing vegan population and the appeal to lower the carbon footprint that spurs from meat consumption.

To that end, Impossible Foods is growing rapidly. Its products can now be found in more than 20,000 retail stores, compared to 150 as of March 2020, and 40,000 restaurants globally. Over the past year, Impossible has launched in new countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UAE.

Impossible Foods, privately held, is gradually closing on its publicly-traded archrival Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND). For comparison, Beyond Meat’s products are available in over 80 countries, and it brought in $407mn in revenue last year.

Investors around the world are betting big on the plant-based meat sector. There have been several big funding rounds in the industry this year, including $350mn by Nature’s Fynd, $335mn by Livekindly Collective, and $58mn by Brazil’s Future Farm.

Since March 2020, Impossible has raised $1.2bn in funding across three rounds, including this latest one. That’s ample cash to fund the company’s grand expansion plans.

Impossible Foods was founded in 2011 by Patrick Brown, a professor emeritus in the department of biochemistry at Stanford University. Under his leadership, Impossible has garnered an A-list group of institutional and celebrity investors, to name a few, Jay-Z, Katy Perry, Serena Williams, Zedd, and Trevor Noah.