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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

THIS

Plant-Based Meat Company THIS Has Surpassed Its £2M Crowdfunding Goal — With Time to Spare

Plant-based meat company THIS has more than surpassed its £2 million (~$2.6 million USD) target goal on crowdfunding platform Seedrs. So far, the London, U.K.-based company has raised over £3 million — and has 40 days left to go on its campaign (h/t Plant Based News). 

THIS, which raised £4.7 in March of this year, calls itself a plant-based meat company for meat lovers. It only launched in 2019, but already has its plant-based chicken nugget and bacon products in stores at 2,000 retailers across the U.K., including those of Tesco, Waitros, and Ocado. The company has some presence in restaurants, too. Its products are made from soy bean protein, water, and pea protein. The inclusion of other ingredients, such as vegetable extracts, food additive Maltodextrin, and potato starch, varies from one product to the next. 

With the money it’s raising via its Seedr campaign, THIS hopes to expand further into supermarkets and across more restaurant chains, though the campaign does not list specific names. The company noted that it is also “building a formidable innovation engine within the company” to develop more plant-based meat products. 

THIS says it’s on a mission to make “hyper-realistic plant-based food that mimics meat in taste, texture, and appearance.” But while the company may have picked a good time to launch their campaign, it’s also a highly competitive year for plant-based protein. Thanks in no small part to the pandemic, investment in plant-based proteins is up: $1.1 billion up, according to investor network FAIRR’s recent report. Over $907 million of that figure has been invested in plant-based protein alternatives so far in 2020.

And where the alt-protein space was once the territory of mostly burgers, more and more companies have lately come to market with other meat substitute products. Simulate, which raised $4.1 million in July, also makes chicken nuggets. In the bacon realm, THIS will compete with Hooray Foods and Prime Roots, and possibly Beyond, if rumors are to be believed. 

THIS’s fundraising campaign on Seedr is still in private phase and will go public in the coming days.

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.