Australia's V2Food gets $53m Series B extension

It values V2 at around $500 million. The Series B initially closed at A$77 million in October 2020 with support from Sequoia Capital China, Temasek Holdings, Goldman Sachs, ABC World Asia, Altitude Partners, China Renaissance, Horizons Ventures, Marinya Capital, Novel Investments, Main Sequence Ventures, and Chinese agri-food technology company Esenagro.

The new capital will support R&D and a global expansion envisioned as establishing a new export industry for Australia. The Series B has largely targeted a China entry, although V2 plans to downplay its Australian heritage for this market due to ongoing bilateral tensions. Export channels have already been established in Japan, Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, New Zealand, and Singapore.

V2 was launched 2019 with technology developed by Australian science agency CSIRO. Main Sequence, an independent VC set up by CSIRO that maintains strong ties to the agency, remains V2’s largest shareholder. Main Sequence closed its second fund at A$250 million earlier this year with a view to ramping up its agenda to reverse climate change, one of V2’s claimed impacts

V2 uses protein extracted from legumes to create mince that is said to look, taste, and cook like quality meat. Early commercialization traction includes a deal supplying the plant-based meat for the vegetarian Rebel Whopper hamburger at Hungry Jack’s, an Australian fast-food chain controlled by Burger King. V2-branded products are also available at Australian grocery chain Woolworths.

Alternative protein and related food technology are increasingly framed by private equity and venture capital investors as part of an environmentally conscious strategy. Australasian projects leveraging this trend are said to benefit from an historical reputational advantage in sustainable foods. Previous activity in this area includes a $7 million round for New Zealand’s Sunfed Meats.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Consumer
• Cleantech
• Early-stage
• Australia
• Impact investment
• Food