Impossible Foods recently raised USD 500 million in a new funding round. This was following a previous USD 500 million round in March 2020 and a USD 200 million round in August 2020. The idea the company has is to change the food system with innovative plant-based alternatives, Impossible Foods is now the most funded and fastest-growing vegan startup worldwide.
The last funding round brings the company's total investments to date to nearly $2 billion, funds that Impossible Foods is using to achieve its mission of replacing all animal foods with viable plant-based alternatives by the year 2035.
“We're fortunate to have great investors who believe in our long-term mission,”
Impossible Foods Chief Financial Officer David Borecky said in a statement.
“The latest round of funding allows us to further accelerate our product innovation and global expansion efforts as we continue to leverage the power of the food system to satisfy consumers and fight climate change.”
The global meat sector is worth USD 900 billion in 2020 and will increase to increase to USD 1.2 trillion by the year 2025. Animal agriculture is one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and Impossible Foods wants to end the hegemony of the global meat market, to replace it with plant-based meats that require fewer resources to produce while emitting fewer greenhouse gases.
The first target of the company was beef with the launch of its Impossible burger in 2016. After it launched at a handful of high-end restaurants, the Impossible Burger hit fast-food giants, including White Castle, burger king, and Fatburger.
The next step, Impossible Foods is targeting pork with the launch of Impossible Pork with Its partners included Burger King, Jamba, and Starbucks—which added the Impossible Breakfast Sandwich to its menu that summer. Impossible Foods made its pork alternative available in retail earlier this year with the launch of Impossible Sausage made from Plants in spicy and savory flavors at 13,000 stores nationwide.
Impossible Foods spent several years developing and launching its first products, in the last couple of months, the company has accelerated the release of new products, and this summer they will release its first plant-based chicken product with the Impossible Chicken Nuggets made from Plants. The new vegan chicken nuggets will be introduced at selected Burger King locations, Red Roosterand many others.
This October Impossible Foods launched plant-based Impossible meatballs made from a blend of its Impossible Burger and Impossible Sausage. The prepared vegan meatballs can be found at Walmart stores. The company is also looking to replace animal foods outside of the meat sector and unveiled a prototype for its functional plant-based milk last October.
“Our mission is to completely replace the use of animals as a food technology by 2035. We're dead serious about it and we believe it's doable,”
Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown, said during a conference earlier this year.
“I was confident that we would succeed when I launched this company, and now I'm completely confident. It's game over for the incumbent [meat] industry—they just don't realize it yet.”
