Coatue leads $200m Series G for Impossible Foods

The plant-based meat producer prepares to accelerate the development of new products, including pork, milk and steak

“2020 has been a year of explosive growth for us, but this is just the beginning,” said David Lee, chief financial officer at Impossible Foods as the company announced it raised $200 million in a Series G funding round led by new investor Coatue. The plant-based meat producer has raised nearly $1.5 billion to date.

Based in New York, Coatue is a technology-focused investment fund manager that invests in public and private equity markets. It is led by chief investment officer Philippe Laffont, who founded Coatue after leaving Tiger Management in 1999. Coatue also operates from offices in California and Hong Kong.

Impossible Foods said that the funds will be used in part to expand its research and development programmes, accelerate its manufacturing scale-up, and increase its retail presence and availability in key international markets.

The company also plans to accelerate commercialisation and development of next-generation, plant-based products. Pork, milk steak and other foods are in the pipeline.

Challenging the meat industry

Dr Patrick Brown, founder and chief executive of Impossible Foods, believes that the use of animals to make food is the most destructive technology on Earth, a leading driver of climate change, and the primary cause of a catastrophic global collapse of wildlife populations and biodiversity.

“Impossible Foods’ mission is to replace that archaic system by making the most delicious, nutritious and sustainable meats in the world, directly from plants,” said Brown. He recognised that to do that, the company needs to sustain its exponential growth in production and sales, and invest significantly in research and development.

Brown added: “Our investors believe in our mission to transform the global food system, and they recognise an extraordinary economic opportunity.”

Big-pocket investment

Impossible Foods raised $500 million in the previous funding round, announced mid-March, which is deemed one of the largest investment rounds for a foodtech start-up: it was oversubscribed due to excess demand from investors.

According to Crunchbase, Impossible Foods has 42 investors, from big-pocket funds like Temasek to individual investors, including celebrities Jay-Z, Katy Perry, and Serena Williams.

The Series G follows the launch of Impossible Sausage, the first all-new product from Impossible Foods since the 2016 launch of the Impossible Burger.

Skyrocketing growth

The Impossible Sausage made its debut at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show in January and six months later it became available in more than 22,000 restaurants.

Burger King was the first restaurant to roll out the Impossible Sausage in June when it launched the Impossible Croissan’wich in all 7,500 locations in the US. A week later, Starbucks launched the Impossible Breakfast Sandwich in all 15,000 outlets nationwide.

Impossible Sausage also went on sale to all restaurants in the US via major foodservice distributors, beginning with 30 of the top-rated diners in the country.

The company’s flagship product, Impossible Burger, has also seen demand skyrocket, particularly in grocery stores.

The company said it had to accelerate its retail roll out in response to the spike in demand from consumers and grocery stores, as shoppers radically shifted their food-purchasing behaviour due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

“In March, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in the US, Impossible Burger was on shelves in only 150 grocery stores nationwide. It’s now available in more than 8,000 grocery stores across all 50 states,” the company said in a statement, noting its retail footprint has increased more than 60 times in the past six months.

Covid-19 strategies

Impossible Foods debuted its direct-to-consumer e-commerce site in June, with two-day delivery in the continental US.

“Customer satisfaction is extremely high,” the company said. “About 95% of online customers say they are likely to purchase via the e-commerce channel again. At least 75% of buyers report having tried Impossible Burger previously in restaurants, including Burger King, White Castle and Red Robin.”

Impossible Foods increased its production capacity to support surging demand. The company said that with a robust plant-based supply chain, it has experienced no disruptions to its manufacturing operations during the Covid-19 crisis, and has achieved new production milestones month over month.

The company claims that its business is in stark contrast to the slaughterhouse industry that experienced rampant Covid-19 outbreaks.

“We plan to create plant-based upgrades for every major category of animal-derived food products,” said Lee. “This investment will allow us to continue to develop and commercialise the technology that will enable that transformation.”

Nutritional profile

The Impossible Burger is the result of a food engineering process. The product has as much protein and bioavailable iron as a comparable serving of ground beef from cows.

A four-ounce serving (113 g) of Impossible Burger has zero mg cholesterol, 14 g of total fat, 8 g of saturated fat and 240 calories. Its animal counterpart, the traditional beef burger of 80/20 beef-fat ratio, has 80 mg cholesterol, 23 g of total fat, 9 g of saturated fat and 290 calories.

The company claims: “Impossible Burger contains no animal hormones or antibiotics and is kosher, halal and gluten-free certified, and because it’s made from plants and bioengineered, it uses 96% less land, 87% less water and 89% fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional beef from cows.”