Meatless Farm founder: Ignore the alt-protein share price slump, our category is booming

  • 6 April 2022
  • Plant-based
Start-up likely to reach profitability in the next two years, despite mounting losses for others in the sector 
Meatless Farm is close to finalising a new round of funding to support its plans for profitability

Meatless Farm founder Morten Toft Bech has called on the alt-protein industry to dismiss the international media’s recent narrative consumer desire for plant-based meat is in decline.

In February the FT reported that Beyond Meat had missed Wall Street estimates and recorded losses of $80.4 million in Q4 2021, which indicated a “slump” in the “emerging meat category”, the paper claimed. 

The US plant burger giant’s share price has also slipped 27% since the beginning of the year, which Toft Bech believes is the result of an overhyped initial valuation since its IPO in 2019. 

Others in the category has also taken a hit in recent months, including NASDAQ-listed The Very Good Food Company, which reported a $43.6 million loss in 2021. 

Meatless Farm ad

“There are companies like Meatless Farm that are seeing tremendous growth, several 100% growth year-over-year, year-after-year,” Toft Bech told NutritionInvestor in a recent interview. 

“Had we been in a technology sector, there would be hundreds of listed companies to compare Beyond Meat to, but because all the others are owned by either big FMCGs or have been bought by massive meat companies, we have ended up in a situation where all fingers are pointing at Beyond for value in alt-protein,” Toft Bech added. 

“We won’t over-hype our valuation”

The founder said he has refused to ‘overhype’ Meatless Farm’s valuation to investors as it “won’t live up to it”. 

“It’s not all about the dollar valuations, our climate change mission and changing the food value chain is more important and we need to push forward as a category,” Toft Bech said. 

The company has raised over £50 million in funding since its launch, and is currently finalising another round. 

Toft Bech said it needed to raise around £40 million to become profitable and reach a positive EBITDA. 

“That’s only a couple of years away,” he concluded.