Australia's V2Food raises $35m Series A

Sequoia Capital China and family office Marinya Capital also participated. The capital will be applied in part to expansions across Asia and regional Australia.

V2 is best known for supplying plant-based meat for the vegetarian Rebel Whopper hamburger at Hungry Jack's, an Australian fast food chain controlled by Burger King. The company was set up this year by food scientists at CSIRO, the Australian government research unit. Main Sequence is the manager of the CSIRO Innovation Fund.

"The work we did within CSIRO illuminated very quickly that it's just not going to be possible doing the things we do today," Phil Morle, a partner at Main Sequence told The Australian. "We had a terrific pool of decades of deep knowledge that would allow us to get into the plant-based meat space, and we knew we could come a long way very quickly. We know this can be a very significant company with a huge impact on the global food system."

Investment activity in food innovation has surged in recent months on the back of several trends related to food safety concerns, environmentalism, and increased health consciousness. Recent activity in this space includes a $300 million round for Impossible Foods, a US-based alternative meats developer with a strong focus on Asia that also counts Horizons as an investor.

In May, VisVires New Protein, a Singapore-based VC firm dedicated to next-generation food technology launched its second fund with a target of $150 million.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Consumer
• Early-stage
• Cleantech
• Australia
• Sequoia Capital