Impossible Foods raises $500 Million

Key facts:

• Impossible Foods raises a new funding round of $500 Million
• With this series F, the total funding raised by the startup is nearing $1.3 billion

Deep Dive:

Two weeks after slashing its prices in foodservice (restaurants), Impossible Foods announces a new investment of $500 Million from existing investors with the addition of Mirae AM (a Korean asset management firm).

This additional funding is clearly oriented toward growth and fighting competition:

• Research and innovation, notably toward pork and sausages (domain where Beyond Meat is already active)
• Grow its International presence and scale up its production
• Continue to grow in foodservice (where it seems both Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat make the most of their growth)

DigitalFoodLab’s opinion:

This new funding may not (only) be targeted against Beyond Meat. Competition stiffens with retailers launching their private labels (notably in Foodservice), big brands launching their plant-based products and smaller players (especially outside the US) raising significant amounts of money and creating local competitors.

This kind of money will make harder and harder for new entrants to create competitive products but will be positive for the consumer as prices will continue to decline. In a couple of years, Beyond Meat’s and Impossible Food’s products will certainly be at price parity with conventional meat. This, in turn, will let us know the potential size of the market.