Korea's Mirae leads $500m round for Impossible Foods

The investment also saw participation by Li Ka-Shing's Horizons Ventures, Temasek Holdings, and Khosla Ventures, as well as several high net worth individuals and celebrity endorsement partners, including Serena Williams, Katy Perry, and Jay-Z. It follows a $300 million round last year led by Temasek and Horizon and brings total funding to $1.3 billion since inception in 2011. 

“With this latest round of fundraising, Impossible Foods has the resources to accelerate growth and continue to thrive in a volatile macroeconomic environment, including the current COVID-19 pandemic,” David Lee, CFO of Impossible, said in a statement. The company said it would introduce various safety measures in light of the outbreak, such as travel restrictions and daily sanitizing regimes for manufacturing facilities.

"Our mission is to replace the world’s most destructive technology – the use of animals in food production – by 2035,” Patrick Brown, founder and CEO of Impossible, added. “To do that, we need to double production every year, on average, for 15 years and double down on research and innovation. The market has its ups and downs, but the global demand for food is always there, and the urgency of our mission only grows.”

Impossible specializes in engineering products with similar characteristics to meat. The process includes the extraction of a chemical known as heme from plant protein to imitate the flavor, aroma, and bloody juices of meat. Deodorized coconut oil is also used to reproduce the caramelizing effect that colors seared meats. Typically focused on ground beef-style products, its latest launch is a pork sausage alternative.

The company is said to be worth some $2 billion and expected to pursue an IPO in the near term, although management has downplayed the speculation. Beyond Meat, one of Impossible’s largest global competitors, raised $240 million in a US IPO last year that set up exits for a number of PE and VC investors. Beyond currently has a market capitalization of around $3.8 billion.  

Impossible has differentiated itself in a growing alternative protein market through a scaling strategy that emphasizes restaurant supply and celebrity chef collaborations. This approach acknowledges that meat-eaters – by far a larger target market than pure vegetarians – are more open to trying new things when selecting from a menu than from a grocery store shelf. This is considered a more interactive strategy that precipitates increased social media buzz. 

Asia is a major part of the expansion agenda, with the company describing the broader region as representing about a third of global demand for meat and having the fastest-growing consumption rates. Impossible has already launched in Singapore, Macau, and Hong Kong. The plan has been to enter centers of cultural influence where Western and Eastern cuisines come together with recognized chefs and restaurant brands. 

Although customer-facing brands such as Impossible and Beyond have attracted the largest rounds in the alternative protein space to date, there is a sense that most of the investment opportunity will be in the back-end technology supply chains. Recent Asian activity under this thesis includes an early-stage round last month for Singapore’s TurtleTree Labs, which claims to have created the first-ever cell-based milk.  

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• Topics
• North America
• Consumer
• Technology
• Expansion
• USA
• Asia
• Mirae Asset Private Equity
• Temasek Holdings
• Khosla Ventures
• Cleantech