Today Seattle Food Tech, a startup that makes and sells plant-based chicken nuggets for the foodservice industry, announced it is rebranding as Rebellyous.
“Now that the company is pretty well established and we have a product that’s resonating, we feel like we’ve defined ourselves,” Rebellyous’ CEO and founder Christie Lagally told me on the phone this morning. “[The rebrand] is an opportunity to give our success a name.”
Founded in 2017, Rebellyous makes vegan chicken nuggets from ingredients like soy and wheat protein. By focusing on B2B foodservice sales and scalable manufacturing (Lagally is a former Boeing engineer), the startup’s goal is to sell their plant-based nuggets for the same price as chicken. They’re projecting consistent price parity with chicken nuggets in roughly two years. Rebellyous has raised just over $2 million in funding so far.
While the name Seattle Food Tech may accurately describe the startup’s goals — to use technology to affordably scale plant-based food production in, well, Seattle — it didn’t necessarily resonate with customers in the same way as Beyond Meat or Impossible Foods. “Our partners were looking for something that described our brand,” said Lagally.
The new name comes at a time when the startup is beginning to ramp up production in earnest. According to Lagally, Rebellyous’ nuggets are in 6 to 10 restaurants in the Pacific Northwest through their partnership with vegan food wholesaler Earthly Gourmet. They’re also on menus at two Swedish Hospital locations in Seattle and have completed two trials in office cafeterias: one at Adobe in Seattle and one at visual computing tech company Nvidia in the Bay Area.
According to Lagally, Rebellyous’ new name is meant to express the company’s “lighthearted but determined efforts to make plant-based meat accessible to everyone.”
There’s not a lot of plant-based chicken competition gunning for the B2B foodservice sector as of yet. However, as demand for alternative proteins continues to grow you can bet there soon will be — especially once poultry giant Tyson Foods launches its line of plant-based protein. It’s a smart move on Rebellyous’ part to rebrand with a name that’ll stick in customers’ minds and (hopefully) keep them coming back for more.
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