Rather than ignoring the threat of plant-based protein, traditional meat companies have hopped on board. Tyson, the largest meat processor in the US, has also invested in lab-grown meat start-ups, Memphis Meats and Future Meat Technologies.
Agribusiness giant, Cargill, the privately held US company, has also invested in Memphis Meats.
California-based Beyond Meat, which is seeking to float on the US stock market and raise $100m, says it wants to create the future of protein but emphasises that plant-based “meat” doesn’t compromise its taste.
For the first nine months of 2018, it had sales of $56m, with almost 50% of sales in the food service sector. It sells products in approximately 11,000 restaurants and foodservice outlets across the United States
It has already raised $100m from the likes of Leonardo Di Caprio, Bill Gates, Tyson, Seth Goldman, and a range of pension funds.
In 2015, Beyond Meat had revenues of $9m.
Two years later, it had sales of $33m in 2017. And for the first nine months of 2018, it had sales of $56m, with almost 50% of sales in the food service sector. It sells products in approximately 11,000 restaurants and foodservice outlets across the United States.
However, the company has never made a profit.
In 2016, it lost $25m and in 2017 it lost $30m, with losses of $22m in the first nine months of 2018.
It attributes this loss to investments in innovation and the growth of the business.
It has already received funding of over $500m from investors such as Bill Gates and a host of pension funds.
The company produces the Impossible Burger, which is made from plants. The company aims to produce plant-based foods that it claims will “outperform existing meat and dairy products in taste and nutrition, at a lower cost and with a much lower impact on the global environment”.
Another plant protein start-up, Just, formerly known as Hampton Creek, is aiming to bring lab-grown chicken meat to restaurants.
Once valued at $1.1bn, the company has struggled due to poor corporate governance.
Another start-up, Geltorm, which is backed by ADM, raised $18.2m to commercialise lab-grown protein.
ADM also partnered with Perfect Day to produce dairy proteins from sugars rather than from cows.
ADM aims to scale up Perfect Day’s technology and start shipping cow-free dairy ingredients to food businesses in 2019.
Perfect Day describes its product with terms such as lactose-free, cholesterol-free, more food-safe, hormone, antibiotic and steroid-free and earth friendly.