Wicked Kitchen, a UK-based plant-based food and prepared meal brand, announced this week that has closed a Series A round of $14M. This is the company’s first public round and it was led by Unovis Asset Management and NRF Nove Foods.
Following this funding, Wicked Kitchen will soon expand into the U.S. with its plant-based offerings, and will build out its teams in London, Austin, and Minneapolis. Its current product lines are extensive, featuring everything from vegan desserts to alternative protein analogs. For the U.S. consumer, Wicked Kitchen will bring plant-based prepared frozen meals, ready-to-eat lunch and breakfast options, sauces, mayo, pesto, and meals kits to select retailers.
The founders of Wicked Kitchen are Chad and Derek Sarno, who are also chefs and co-founders of Good Catch, a plant-based seafood brand in the U.S. In 2018, the Sarnos collaborated with Tesco in the U.K. to launch Wicked Kitchen as a new plant-based range. Wicked Kitchen products are sold exclusively in Tesco, and has yet to be announced which retailers will carry the company’s products in the U.S.
In 2020, $2.1 billion was invested into plant-based companies, and they have continued to score a lot of funding this year. Large funding rounds like Wicked Kitchen’s recent round has allowed plant-based companies to expand into additional markets throughout the world. Singapore-based Next Gen Foods announced yesterday that it will be bringing its plant-based chicken brand TiNDLE to the U.S. following a $20 million extension of its seed round. Cultivated meat producer Aleph Farms raised $105 million earlier this month and shared it will use this funding to grow its operations internationally. Eat Just also shared that it plans to use its $200 million funding round that was closed this past March to expanding internationally.
Wicked Kitchen’s products are expected to roll out by the end of summer in the U.S., with a total of 20 products launching initially.
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