Blackbird joins $7m round for New Zealand's Sunfed

Other investors include Chris Hadley, executive chairman of Quadrant Private Equity. The company, which currently markets a chicken substitute locally, is expected to roll out a beef product in the near term, enter Australia next year, and advance ongoing R&D related to new plant-based pork and tuna products.

Sunfed was founded by computer scientist Shama Lee (pictured) and her husband Hayden Lee in 2016 and began supplying supermarkets the following year. The company uses custom hardware to produce its flagship “chicken-free chicken” product with pea protein that is gluten, soy, and genetically modified organism-free. It is said to have twice the protein of chicken and three times the iron of beef.

“Animal protein is the dominant source of protein for the majority of people on the planet, but it is unsustainable to continue to eat meat at the rates we do, even without accounting for population growth,” Samantha Wong, a partner at Blackbird, said in a statement. “Livestock production contributes as much to greenhouse emissions as the transportation sector. Meat prices are the cheapest the market can support and are steadily rising.”

Wong noted that the latest fundraise would also be used in part to test Sunfed products in Asian markets. She highlighted China as a market where consumers were increasingly concerned about food security, particularly with regard to the quality and safety of raw meat. Other recent investment addressing this thesis includes a $114 million round for Impossible Foods, a US-based vegetarian food technology player currently expanding into Asia.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Australasia
• Consumer
• Cleantech
• Early-stage
• New Zealand
• Blackbird Ventures
• Venture
• Agriculture