Plant-based meat giant Impossible Foods announced yesterday that it raised another $200 million in funding. According to TechCrunch, the new round was led by tech-focused hedge fund Caotue with participation from XN, another hedge fund. This brings Impossible’s total funding raised so far to $1.5 billion.
This new cash follows a $500 million round of funding Impossible secured in March of this year to weather global volatility (read: impending pandemic at the time). But the company has certainly been spending its money. This has been an, errr, impossibly busy summer for the company. Just since June, Impossible has:
- Launched a direct-to-consumer channel
- Launched plant-based sausage breakfast sandwiches at both Starbucks and Burger King
- Made said plant-based sausage available to restaurants across the U.S.
- Partnered with Home Chef on meal kits
- Launched at Trader Joe’s
- Launched at Walmart
Phew! Hopefully that new money is paying people overtime.
The funding also comes during a time when the global pandemic is highlighting ethical and logistical issues with the animal-based meat supply. That in turn has led to a soaring demand of plant-based meat. As illustrated by the list above, Impossible has clearly been able to scale up production to meet that demand.
Impossible’s main rival, Beyond Meat, has also been busy this summer with China deals, as well as piloting a new plant-based chicken at KFC. The company has also said it will launch its own direct-to-consumer channel at some point in the future.
Impossible said that it will use the new funding to develop new lines of products such as steak and milk, and will continue to build out its manufacturing.
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