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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

plant-based

Plantible Raises $4.6M to Accelerate Production of Protein Made from Aquatic Plants

Plantible Foods, a San Marco, California-based startup making alternative protein from aquatic plants, has raised a $4.6 million seed round. The round was co-led by Lerer Hippeau and Vectr Ventures, with participation from FTW Ventures and eighteen94 Capital, the corporate venture arm of Kellogg’s.

Founded in 2018, Plantible processes lemna, also known as duckweed, to create a high-protein powder called Rubi Protein which it sells to B2B partners. As we wrote when we profiled Plantible earlier this year:

Plantible’s scientists developed a proprietary process to extract the grassy flavor from lemna, leaving a protein that’s on par with pea or soy nutrition-wise, but is completely colorless, odorless, and flavorless. The perfect blank canvas for a variety of animal alternative products. 

Speaking to me on the phone this week, Plantible’s co-founder Tony Martens said the company has now raised a total of $5.8 million in funding. He also told me he and the Plantible team had decamped to live out of trailers on their two-acre lemna farm as soon as California enacted its shelter-in-place measures. Despite the circumstances, the small team is continuing to produce the Rubi Protein and push forward with R&D.

The company plans to use the fresh funding to scale up production. Right now Plantible is only able to utilise about 4 percent of the lemna grown on the farm, which they process in a lab on wheels (“like something out of a Breaking Bad episode,” Martens said). The goal is to be able to invest in a larger processing facility so that they can start turning all of the lemna from the aquatic farm into Rubi Protein.

Of course, our conversation quickly turned to the coronavirus pandemic. Martens said that for now, they’re still planning to plow forward with commercialization. For the past few months Plantible has been testing its Rubi Protein Powder with several corporate partners and they still hope to have a product featuring Rubi Protein out in the market by late 2020 or early 2021.

But Plantible isn’t immune to the effects of COVID-19. “Lots of plant-based foods are priced at a premium,” Martens told me. “Smaller brands might have a tough time surviving the recession that could result from the pandemic.”

Indeed, Plantible will be more costly than some other plant proteins, at least initially. But Martens is confident that they’ll quickly be able to undercut the price of egg whites — one of the ingredients that Rubi Protein can replace — and will eventually be cheaper than pea protein.

CPG companies are looking for ways to cash in on the plant-based foods craze. With this new funding, it looks like Plantible will have a chance to prove its worth in the canon of alt-protein ingredients — coronavirus or no.

Eat Beyond Global’s CEO on Why Now is Prime Time to Invest in Food Tech

With so much instability in the world right now, it may seem like a tricky time to be raising money for an investment fund. Especially in a burgeoning space like food tech.

But according to Patrick Morris, CEO of Eat Beyond Global, COVID-19 actually presents a ripe opportunity for investment in food innovation. Eat Beyond Global is a Canadian fund focused on food tech, particularly in the alternative protein realm. Morris told me that they plan to make 10-20 plant-based investments ranging in amount from $1 million to $10 million CAD over the next four years with a minimum ownership goal of 5 percent.

Right now Eat Beyond is raising the second half of its initial fund, which will be between $5 million and $7 million CAD. By the end of the year, Morris hopes to raise as much as $30 million CAD.

The fund has whittled down their initial potential investment companies to 5 options and will deploy capital over the next several months. They’re targeting early-stage companies, ones that are “just starting to make an impact,” according to Morris. He hopes the fund will be public on the Canadian stock exchange by Q2 of this year.

Morris wouldn’t divulge the names of the five companies they’re considering, but said that four were focused on plant-based foods (eggs, milk, bread, and ice cream), with one concentrating on cellular agriculture. True to its name, Eat Beyond Global isn’t limiting its investments to Canada; Morris named the U.S., Japan, and England as other areas it’s exploring.

Despite the looming economic uncertainty brought on by COVID-19, alternative protein is one area that has actually seen a lot of investment recently. Over the past month alone, plant-based chicken startup Rebellyous raised $6 million, Singaporean alt-meat company Growthwell Group nabbed $8 million, and Israeli chickpea protein producer Innovopro raised $25 million.

Venture funds are also taking notice. In the U.S. Big Idea Ventures (BIV), which raised $50 million for its New Protein Fund last year, is in the midst of raising a whopping $250 million fund for investment in new technologies throughout the food system.

Clearly, the global pandemic isn’t putting a damper on Tom Mastrobuoni, a Venture Partner at BIV, who told me last week that the coronavirus could actually shed some light on the shortcomings in our food system — and the need for sustainable, tech-driven solutions.

Morris agrees. “The fact that we could close the first half of our financing during COVID-19 — when all hell is breaking loose — shows the strength of the category.”

Singaporean Alternative Meat Co. Growthwell Group Raises $8M, Will Develop Chickpea Protein Products

The Growthwell Group, a plant-based protein company based in Singapore, announced today that it had raised $8 million (h/t Deal Street Asia). The investment was led by Singaporean sovereign fund Temasek with participation from DSG Consumer Partners, Insignia Ventures, Genesis Ventures, and others. Growthwell also announced it had made its own investment in ChickP, an Israel-based startup developing chickpea protein.

Founded in 1989, The Growthwell Group owns a portfolio of alternative protein companies aimed at Southeast Asian consumers, including OKK (plant-based meat), Su Xian Zi (vegan mutton), and gomama (ready to eat dishes made from plants). As of today, that lineup will also include ChickP, maker of super high protein chickpea powder for use in meat and dairy alternatives. It sells products to roughly 1500 retailers and 3000 foodservice establishments.

Growthwell plans to use ChickP’s proprietary protein isolate to develop new products for the Asia-Pacific market. According to AgFunder, the new chickpea-powered foods will include plant-based shrimp and squid meat, as well as a vegan crab burger. Next up, it’ll develop chickpea milk and ice cream.

In addition to bringing ChickP’s protein to Asia, Growthwell will also use its new funding to open a new R&D center in Singapore with fully automated production lines. The facility is slated to open in 2021. The company is also working to bring its suite of plant-based foods to new markets, specifically China and Australia.

For its part, Temasek is all over the alternative protein space. This year alone they’ve already made investments in cultured meat startup Memphis Meats, Impossible Foods, and Califia Farms. In 2019 they put some major capital into Perfect Day’s flora-based dairy technology.

Asia is a burgeoning market for alternative protein, especially as the African Swine Fever decimated pork production and COVID-19 has thrown a wrench into meat manufacturing. Singapore in particular, with its goal to produce 30 percent of its food within its borders by 2030, has invested quite heavily in the plant-based food space.

At the same time, U.S. players are making their own play for the alternative protein market in Asia. Beyond Meat began selling at Starbucks in China last week and Cargill has a limited-time launch of plant-based chicken at KFC China. Impossible Foods isn’t far behind.

These three are peddling vegan beef, chicken, and pork, so Growthwell is focusing on less crowded markets like seafood and dairy. We’ll have to see if their new funding can help the company push through the challenges of COVID-19 and become a plant-based powerhouse on the other wise.

The Collaborative Raises $7M to Fuel U.S. Expansion of Coconut Yogurt Empire

The Collaborative, a plant-based yogurt startup formerly known as The Coconut Collaborative, has closed a $7 million Series A funding round led by PowerPlant Ventures.

Founded by twin brothers in 2014, The Collaborative started off making coconut-based yogurt and desserts in the U.K. They expanded to the U.S. market in 2018. It’s currently available in retailers nationwide and will launch on Amazon Fresh in May.

It looks like The Collaborative will use its new funds to really put down roots in the U.S. market and expand its retail footprint. The company is also updating its yogurt offerings to include new sizes (like a multi-serve size) and expanding its dessert lineup.

The Collaborative frames its product as a more sustainable alternative to regular yogurt. While dairy has a hefty environmental footprint, coconut harvesting has its own share of evils. To offset its impact, The Collaborative works with Pur Project to plant coconut trees in Southeast Asia to replenish the ones it uses to create its yogurt.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic slowing down the economy, a slew of plant-based companies have announced funding over the past few weeks. Rebellyous Foods raised $6 million for its vegan chicken nuggets, and Impossible Foods announced an eye-popping $500 million raise to help it weather the COVID-19 storm. As restaurants close and people turn even more to retail, animal alternatives have been experiencing a boom in sales — that’s good news for The Collaborative.

The bad news is it has plenty of competition to contend with. The plant-based yogurt space has really been heating up over the past year. Startups like Yofix, Kite Hill, and Lavva, who makes yogurt from pili nuts, are all jostling to come out with a yogurt tasty enough to convert dairy lovers. Even Big Food corporations, like Chobani and Yoplait, are getting in on it.

With so many new entrants crowding the plant-based yogurt section of your grocery shelf, the differentiator will come down to one thing: taste. Our own Jenn Marston (and self-described dairy lover) sampled some of The Collaborative’s coconut yogurt a few years ago and thought it did a pretty good job of imitating the taste and texture of regular yogurt. With its new funding, The Collaborative will be able to launch new products — in new areas — to try and get even more dairy skeptics on board.

Food Tech News: CRISPR Blackberries and a New Nordic FoodTech Fund

Are you baking bread this weekend? (Hot tip: Even if you can’t find yeast at the store, there’s a simple way to make your own at home.)

In between your dough prooves is a great time to catch up on your latest dose of food tech news. This week we’ve got stories on fresh varietals of gene-edited berries, a new Nordic FoodTech VC fund, Burger King’s trouble over its plant-based burger ads in the UK, and more.

Pairwise partners to breed new type of berries
Agriculture and biotech company Pairwise forged a partnership with Plant Sciences Inc (PSI) this week to create new types of berries (via WRAL TechWire). Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Pairwise uses CRISPR gene editing to develop new varietals of food that are optimized for nutrition, have longer shelf lives or grow more quickly. First up, Pairwise and PSI will focus on black and red raspberries, as well as blackberries. They’re hoping to have their first round of berries on shelves within the next few years.

Lyft launches delivery program for orgs affected by COVID-19
Rideshare and last-mile logistics company Lyft launched a new COVID-19-related initiative this week. Essential Deliveries is a program that partners with businesses and nonprofits to help them deliver staple goods like groceries, prepared meals, and cleaning and medical supplies (h/t Techcrunch) to consumers. Partners can tap into Lyft’s platform to set up deliveries or schedule rides. The program will be available in at least 11 cities nationwide and drivers will be alerted about the nature of the goods they’re delivering. All deliveries will be contact-free.

Nordic FoodTech VC launches with €24.55 million
Nordic FoodTech VC, a new venture fund targeting early-stage tech companies making the food system more sustainable and nutritious, has launched this week. The fund will begin investing with €24.55 million ($26.7 million USD) in capital. It’s the first fund in the Nordic countries and plans to invest in “dozens” of companies innovating to improve the global food system.

Burger King’s Rebel Whopper (Photo: Burger King)

Burger King’s plant-based Whopper ads banned in UK
Three ads from Burger King in the UK promoting its Rebel Whopper have now been banned by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority. Burger King launched the Rebel Whopper, which features a plant-based burger from Unilever-owned Vegetarian Butcher, back in January 2020. Since then, complaints came in stating that the ad was misleading consumers by suggesting that it could be eaten by vegetarians, vegans, and people with egg allergies, despite the fact that it’s cooked on the same grill as meat products and features mayonnaise. The ASA has sided with the complaints, stating that the small print at the bottom of BK’s ads stating that the Rebel Whopper is cooked alongside meat products was not sufficiently in informing consumers.

Impossible Foods Will Be in Nearly 1,000 Retailers Starting Tomorrow

As of tomorrow, you’ll have a lot more opportunities to buy Impossible Foods’ meatless “bleeding” burgers. The company announced via a press conference on Facebook Live today that it will roll out its flagship plant-based beef product to 777 supermarkets in California, Indiana, Illinois and Nevada on April 17. All stores are part of the Albertson’s family, which includes Safeway, Jewel-Osco, and Wegmans. Impossible’s CCO Rachel Konrad noted in the conference that the expansion will put Impossible in almost 1,000 grocery stores nationwide.

This news comes just a few months after Impossible announced a $500 million Series F round — “the largest fundraising round for a food tech company in the history of the world,” according to Konrad. Impossible currently has a total of $1.2 billion in funding.

The plant-based beef will be sold in 12-ounce packages which will cost $8.99 to $9.99, depending on the retailer. Konrad also noted that the product might be available in several different sections of the grocery store — you might find it in the meat section, vegan section, or even the frozen section.

While Impossible has been planning to expand its retail footprint since it first launched in Southern California last fall, it’s no surprise that they’re making a big push now. In fact, Brown stated that the company had actually accelerated the launch in response to the coronavirus. However, he also admitted that COVID-19’s effect on the restaurant industry was challenging for Impossible’s foodservice partners — all 15,000 of them. “It’s been devastating,” Dennis Woodside, the President of Impossible, added.

In an effort to pad sales, Impossible worked with the FDA to allow its restaurant partners to sell uncooked 5-pound bricks of Impossible Foods beef directly to consumers. But that’s a short-term fix, and more a way to help the restaurant augment their sales than anything else.

The time is ripe for Impossible to start concentrating on its grocery presence. “We think retail is going to be a very large business,” said Woodside, noting that the company has added a second line at its manufacturing facility specifically to cater to grocery.

During the conference, Woodside also weighed in on the fact that COVID-19 is also disrupting manufacturing supply chains left and right. Meat production, specifically, has been disrupted by factory shutdowns due to employee sickness. Woodside made a point to contrast that with Impossible’s manufacturing setup, which is automated and therefore “much easier to keep people apart” than in meat processing plants.

Brown also touched on a point that’s been a favorite of alternative meat companies ever since the pandemic hit. He stated that COVID-19 was introduced to the human population through the consumption of wild animals, and that “our reliance on animals as a source of food is not only an environmental disaster… but is at the root of some of the largest public health risks to the human population.”

There’s some pushback against that argument. But one thing that’s not in question, at least for this reporter, is that Impossible burgers are delicious. Sadly since I’m based in Seattle I won’t be able to purchase any Impossible Beef on my next masked grocery run — but at the speed that Impossible is expanding, I have to bet that time isn’t too far away.

High Tech Plant-based Meat Startup Rebellyous Foods Raises $6M Series A, Accelerates Retail Launch

Rebellyous Foods, the startup developing next-gen technology to accelerate the plant-based meat industry, announced today that it had raised a $6 million Series A round. The funding was co-led by Clear Current Capital, Fifty Years, and Liquid 2 Ventures, with participation from Agronomics and Vulcan Capital (the investment arm of Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc). This brings the Seattle-based startup’s total funding to $8.1 million.

Founded in 2017, Rebellyous Foods, formerly Seattle Food Tech, has always had a grand vision of reinventing plant-based meat manufacturing to make it more efficient and cost-effective. But it also has its own brand of alt-meat: chicken. The startup sells its plant-based chicken nuggets B2B to large-scale foodservice operations, like hospitals and cafeterias, in the Seattle area.

With its new funding, Rebellyous will speed up its specialized equipment R&D and expand product development to broaden its plant-based portfolio to include other products, like chicken tenders.

Rebellyous is announcing funding at a time when all anyone can think, talk, or write about is the coronavirus pandemic. Their press release is no exception; in it, Rebellyous CEO and founder Christie Lagally writes:

“Bird flu, swine flu, and now COVID-19 demonstrate that keeping large numbers of animals in close contact with one another presents a tremendous risk for global health… to transition away from our heavy dependence on meat, it’s critical that we make plant-based meat affordable and widely available through innovative production technology.”

There’s some evidence that COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease, meaning it originated in animals and spread to humans. While it’s not proven that switching to a vegan diet would prevent future outbreaks of this kind, that’s certainly being argued by companies and organizations trying to push adoption of meat alternatives.

In fact, retail sales of plant-based meats are on the rise right now. But when it comes to foodservice — Rebellyous’ target market — things are much more stagnant. To expand its revenue sources the company will be expanding into retail, and soon. “Rebellyous will be pivoting to selling direct to consumers (CPG), and we expect to announce a soft launch in just a few weeks,” Lagally told the Spoon. “We had always intended to move into CPG, but the pandemic shut down allowed us to realize that goal earlier than expected.” 

It looks like Rebellyous isn’t going to keep all of its eggs in the foodservice basket.

Applegate to Launch New Blended Meat and Vegetable Burgers in Retail This Month

Hormel-owned Applegate will begin selling Well Carved, its frozen line of blended meat and vegetable products, in grocery stores this month, according to IngredientsNetwork. Well Carved includes hybrid beef and turkey burgers mixed with beans and vegetables, as well as blended meatballs. The new offerings feature a garden-full of plants lentils, cauliflower, spinach, parsley, and kale.

The Well Carved line was meant to debut at the Natural Products Expo West in March, but like every other event, it was postponed in response to COVID-19. Applegate decided to push the launch back to April and do it with retailers — though it hasn’t yet specified which ones, how many, or in which areas.

Applegate was actually the first Big Meat brand to venture into blended products. It launched The Great Organic Blend Burger, made from a mixture of beef and mushrooms, a year ago. That puts it well ahead of Tyson, which debuted its Raised & Rooted line of blended beef burgers and plant-based chicken nuggets in June. Soon after, chicken giant Perdue also released a line of hybrid chicken nuggets, made with plant-based protein from Better Meat Co.

Pricing may be a hurdle for Applegate. A four-pack of Well Carved burgers goes for $9.99, which is almost twice the price of a four-pack of organic beef burgers at some supermarkets. In fact, it’s almost on par with the price of Beyond Beef burgers. I’m wondering if people looking to cut their meat consumption will actually purchase a blended burger when, for roughly the same cost, they can just buy a delicious plant-based substitute?

Two things could work in Hormel’s favor, though. One, the Well Carved burgers are frozen. And in a time when people are stocking up on frozen food like nobody’s business to avoid grocery runs, that’s a good thing. Well Carved burgers also position themselves as clean label and wholesome — that is, they contain only vegetables and meat. Some critics don’t like that plant-based meat like Beyond and Impossible contains a litany of ingredients and is processed. That could spur flexitarian consumers looking to cut their meat consumption to give Well Carved a try.

It’s a prime time to drop a new alt-meat product in retail. With COVID-19 spurring sharp increases in grocery sales for both meat and plant-based meat, this is a prime time to experiment and see if blended burgers can actually make it in the market.

Swedish Plant-based Investment Fund Kale United Scores €350K

Plant-based holding company Kale United announced today that its latest funding round, which launched on the crowdfunding site FundedByMe, is fully subscribed and has raised €350,000 ($380,000). The holding group currently has over 100 public and private investors.

Based in Sweden, Kale United has invested in 30 startups making plant-based meat, dairy, and more. Its portfolio currently includes Hooray Foods (meatless bacon), Noquo Foods (vegan cheese), Ocean Hugger Foods (plant-based fish for sushi), and LiveKindly (vegan media platform). According to a press release on their site Kale United’s most successful investment thus far is Astrid Och Aporna, a range of plant-based meat sold in Swedish retailers. The fund will use its fresh capital to expand its portfolio with new early-stage plant-based companies.

$380,000 seems like a pretty modest sum when compared with other plant-based venture firms, like Big Idea Ventures or Agfunder, whose funds are up in the tens of millions. However, it’s intriguing to see that Kale United has turned to a crowdfunding site to raise its sum, meaning that regular folks like you or me could get in on the investment action. Other venture funds require people to be an established investor or pay high entry fees to participate.

This pairs well with the recent trend we’ve been seeing in equity crowdfunding, which is when companies let people buy a stake of the company itself. Kale United isn’t doing exactly the same thing — rather it’s opening its doors to allow people to participate in their fund, which the company will then allocate to startups — but it is democratizing the investment process in a similar way.

It might be an opportune time for people to invest more heavily in animal-free products, despite the circumstances (you know, the global pandemic). Coronavirus is disrupting almost every corner of the food world, but it’s actually spurring sales of plant-based foods, specifically milk and meat. If that trend continues more investment in the space there will be more opportunity for new startups — and for the funds backing them.

THIS Raises £4.7M for Plant-based Chicken and Bacon

Even though the news cycle is dominated by coronavirus, the world is still turning — and plant-based meat companies are still getting funding.

In fact, today THIS, a UK startup making alt-meat, raised a £4.7 million ($5.5 million) seed round (h/t Tech.eu). The round was led by Backed with participation from Five Season Ventures, Idinvest Partners, Seedcamp and Manta Ray Ventures. This brings THIS’ (ha) total funding to £5.6 million ($6.6 million).

Founded in 2019, THIS makes alternatives to chicken and bacon — including flavored chicken pieces and nuggets — from a mixture of pea and soy protein. Its products are currently available in 1200 retailers and restaurant chains. As of now, THIS only sells in the U.K.

Photo: THIS’ plant-based bacon

As I’ve written before, chicken is primed to be the next big alt-meat. Startups like NUGGS, Rebellyous, and Daring are all making chicken nuggets and pieces meant to be an easy 1-1 replacement for chicken meat. Larger companies — like Beyond Meat — are also diversifying into chicken. Even Big Meat is getting in on the alt-chicken space. With its new funding, THIS is smart to try and amp up and get more brand recognition and shelf space before it becomes as crowded as plant-based burger space.

The space that has even more potential, I think, is bacon. Very few companies are making plant-based bacon right now, and the ones that I’ve tasted on grocery shelves are generally overly salty and have the texture of cardboard. There’s a vacuum, just waiting for someone like THIS to fill it (before Impossible Foods beats them to it and launches its own product).

THIS will use its new funding to boost manufacturing capacity and establish an internal R&D center. Hopefully that means we’ll be seeing some more plant-based bacon on our grocery shelves in the near future.



JUST’s New Plant-based Egg Patties Taste Like Fast Food (and That’s a Good Thing)

What with the COVID-19 outbreak shuttering restaurants and encouraging social distancing, I’ve suddenly found myself spending a lot more time in my kitchen. I’ve also been on the lookout for protein-packed meals that will store well in case, you know, the worst happens.

So it comes as no surprise that I was excited to sample the JUST’s new plant-based “folded egg” product this week. The eggs — which are made of mung beans — resemble a small square omelet. I received a shipment of them in a refrigerated insulated box (such packaging waste!), and were packaged two-together in shrinkwrapped plastic (more packaging waste!). These were pre-production samples that were shipped directly from the company, so there will presumably be far less packaging once the eggs are available at the grocery store this April.

Taken out of the package, the eggs really do look like, well, eggs. They have a spongy texture and light yellow hue of countless BEC (bacon, egg and cheeses) I bought from corner bodegas in New York, or the filling of fast-food breakfast sandwiches. So far, so good.

JUST folded eggs in packaging. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

The eggs came with a guide which outlined three options for cooking. I could heat the omelet in a toaster for 6. 5 minutes, toast in a toaster oven for 15 minutes at 350 F (or presumably a conventional oven), or microwave it while wrapped in a paper towel. I don’t have a toaster oven that has an option to cook something for 6.5 minutes, so I went with the microwave. The grocery store having been out of paper towels for days, I had to microwave mine without — for 30 seconds per side — and it turned out perfectly fine; warm throughout and pliable.

I first took a bite of the heated omelet by itself. While the texture definitely reminded me of dry omelets (that’s not a bad thing, per se), the taste was distinctly beany — almost chemical-y. In short, not like eggs at all. I thought that the JUST Egg scramble I’d tried in the past did a far better job of approximating the almost sulfuric flavor.

JUST Egg sandwich [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

However, when I made the omelet into a breakfast sandwich featuring toast, (vegan) butter, kale, and hot sauce, I would definitely not have known it wasn’t the real thing from a chicken egg. The patty had the same texture as a reheated omelet, and the beany flavor didn’t come through against all the other ingredients. I gave half of the sandwich to my roommate who devoured it and was shocked to learn that the egg inside was not, in fact, an egg at all.

The JUST omelet won’t fool anyone when eaten on its own, but it’s clearly not meant to be. The folded egg is the perfect shape and size to go into sandwiches, burritos, etc, to add a plant-based layer of protein that can be ready in mere minutes (and doesn’t require the cooking skills of a perfect egg omelet).

The JUST folded egg will be sold in boxes of four starting this April. According to the company, it’ll debut in the freezer section of 5,000 retailers nationally and will sell for the MSRP of $4.99. That’s pricey compared to a dozen regular eggs, but I think the convenience factor of the JUST omelets make them a worthy buy — especially if you’re trying to eat more plant-based products.

We don’t know what the quarantine situation will look like come April, but if you’re able to safely make it to your grocery store to pick up a pack of JUST folded egg omelets, I’d say they’re worth adding to your shopping cart.

New Plant-Based Group The LIVEKINDLY Co. Announces $200M Investment in Alt-Chicken, Digital Media

There’s a new plant-based powerhouse on the block. Today Foods United announced that it has bought vegan media platform LIVEKINDLY and rebranded as The LIVEKINDLY Co., creating an alternative protein group which will focus chiefly on plant-based chicken. The group is backed by Swiss investment firm Blue Horizon, which has previously invested in both Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. As it came out of stealth, LIVEKINDLY Co. also announced that it has raised $200 million in capital from 10 to 15 investors, including its founders.

The LIVEKINDLY Co. has already made two large alt-poultry investments: it holds the majority stake in South African company Fry Family Food Co, which makes meatless burgers, chicken and seafood for retail and foodservice, and the German startup LikeMeat, which makes plant-based chicken products.

Judging from these investments it’s clear that The LIVEKINDLY Co. is thinking globally. It seems the company will continue to do so: according to Reuters, the company has already signed with a partner in Asia and are about to sign with two more in the U.S.

In addition to plant-based meat and media, The LIVEKINDLY Co. also has an equity stake in PURIS Holding, a purveyor of plant-based ingredients (specifically pea protein). According to a press release from the company, this makes The LIVEKINDLY Co. “the only company in the plant-based food sector to own and operate the entire value chain of production.”

That could help their portfolio companies scale quickly and cut costs in order to stand out from other alternative chicken players on the retail shelves. Blue Horizon, The LIVEKINDLY Co’s chief backer, has also invested in numerous plant-based chicken startups, including Planted and Rebellyous, so we’ll see if those companies get folded into to the LIVEKINDLY portfolio as well.

Perhaps the most intriguing move by The LIVEKINDLY Co. is its purchase of its namesake: LIVEKINDLY (which Blue Horizon has also invested in). The digital media platform, which has been a source for plant-based news for years, wrote in a blog post that their mission as journalists would “stay the same.” With an entire media platform at its disposal, it’s not hard to imagine that The LIVEKINDLY Co. could use the website as a tool to grow their portfolio company’s brand recognition and reach, especially in the U.S. market. However, LIVEKINDLY’s association with the brands could be a knock against the publication’s journalistic independence.

The LIVEKINDLY Co’s C-suite certainly has the experience to help give the company’s brands an edge in the retail and foodservice world. CEO Kees Kruythoff was formerly President of Unilever North America. The leadership team also includes veterans of Nestlé and food investment firm Blue Horizon Corporation, which has invested in dozens of alternative protein companies. A good team doesn’t guarantee success, of course, but these veterans could leverage connections in retail, foodservice, and supply chain providers to optimize distribution and avoid pitfalls like production shortages.

Considering the ever-growing popularity of plant-based meat, it’s not necessarily surprising that we’re starting to see this type of umbrella parent company form. In fact, it’s like we’ll see more of them companies pop up as alt-meat competition heats up and companies vie for a bigger piece of the market.