Planted, one of Europe’s most exciting foodtech startups in the alt-protein space has just raised over €70 million. The Swiss startup is developing clean-label bio-structured meat and now wants to launch a new line of ‘whole-cut’ products.
A shift to alternative and plant-based proteins has been sweeping bringing all sorts of culinary and dietary innovations over the past few years. While some are certainly tastier than others, there’s no doubt that on an environmental level, it’s a shift that needs to happen.
A growing global population, food supply chain issues and an increasingly critical climate situation are fuelling this shift, and while demand for meat is still growing – alt-proteins have now consolidated themselves as a standard dietary choice, not part of some unfamiliar or fad diet.
The current scale of the meat industry is simply unsustainable, and Planted wants to change that. The Swiss startup has been working since 2019 to create delicious ‘meat’ products from alternative proteins. Now, the startup has raised a mouth-watering €70 million.
Planted Co-Founder, Christoph Jenny: “Current plant-based meat technologies and solutions are not able to replace more than 1-3% of meat consumption, and therefore are not having the required impact on our food system. Consumers argue that this is due to a lack of taste, an overall unattractive price, and questionable ingredients. For meat-eaters to make a switch, it is crucial that we create ‘better meat than animals’ – meaning better taste, price, lower environmental impact, good ingredients, and healthiness. It is these parameters that are always at our focus”.
The funding
The Series B funding was led by L Catterton and it follows a 2021 finance injection, reflecting the traction the company sees in the market and with investors.
L Catterton is joined by existing investors such as Vorwerk Ventures, Gullspång Re:food, Movendo, Be8 Ventures, ACE, ETH Zürich Foundation, Yann Sommer, as well as new investor Tengelmann Ventures.
The global plant-based meat market is estimated to be worth almost €8 billion at the moment, and projected to reach about €15.5 billion by 2027 – so there’s plenty of space for Planted to soar.
It also marks one of the biggest rounds in Europe in the alt-protein sector.
Planted Co-Founder, Christoph Jenny: “We are proud to be Europe’s fastest growing alternative protein company, with a strong track record of our still young existence in our established markets of Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and France, and fantastic early traction in new markets like the UK and Italy. With the additional capital, we will further accelerate our international growth, expand our product range with a line of whole-cut products, and build an additional production site”.
Clean-label bio-structured meat
Founded in 2019 as a spin-off from ETH (Swiss Technical Institute) Zurich, Planted produces meat from proteins such as peas, oat, and sunflower through its novel bio structuring approach, focusing on the perfect bite with clean-label ingredients. Biostructuring combines protein structuring and fermentation.
This proprietary technology allows Planted to design and structure larger pieces of meat with complex structure, texture, juiciness, and tenderness. Planted is convinced that bio-structured proteins will outperform animal meat in the future in terms of taste, sustainability, health, efficiency and price. Planted is committed to using only clean and natural ingredients and no additives in all its products – making it a healthy and sustainable option for all.
Now, Planted wants to launch its whole-cut product range, including faux chicken breast.
Christoph Jenny: “We are currently in the final phase of launching various whole-cut products such as our chicken tenders, patties as well as chicken breast. These are the first larger cuts of meat on the market without additives. We aim to launch in foodservice with these products with retail following shortly thereafter. As such, our chicken breast launch is being kicked off in collaboration with Michelin star chef Tim Raue and will be available to guests in his restaurant in Berlin as of 15th September 2022, followed by further launches in the foodservice sector.”
Plans to expand
Currently available at restaurants and retailers across Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy and most recently, the UK as well as over its own Europe-wide webshop, the Planted product ranges, each consisting of different protein sources (peas, oat, sunflowers), currently include planted.™chicken, planted.™pulled, planted.™kebab and planted.™schnitzel.
The team of 65 working in science, engineering as well as product development at Planted have been developing several other promising prototypes.
With this new funding, the foodtech innovators plan to launch its new product line, further international expansion and increase production capacity. Planted produces all its products under a glass-house production facility in Kemptthal, Switzerland – the first transparent meat production open to the public. In the near future, Planted is planning to open an additional production facility.
Liz Gordon of L Catterton: “It is an honor to partner with Planted in its mission to revolutionise the way meat and protein-rich foods are consumed globally. Not only are their products inspired by nature, but they are also free of unnatural ingredients, scalable, and able to be easily incorporated into consumers’ daily lives as well as traditional meat supply chains. With food as a strong lever to promote human health and environmental stability, Planted directly contributes to creating a healthier and more sustainable food system. We have strong conviction in the company’s continued growth, as more people across the globe continue to adopt alternative proteins into their lives.”
Christoph added: “It makes us very proud to see how our products excite so many consumers in the UK. Unique aspects such as our natural, healthy, non-artificial ingredients, the incredible technology bringing animal meat like fiber-structure and taste make all the difference. We are excited to further strengthen our international footprint with the current funding and extending our network of partners that share our passion for making a positive impact on this planet”.
