Planted closes on £61m funding round

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PLanted has secured £61m in series B funding

Alternative proteins firm Planted has successfully closed a series B financing round of £61m, the largest funding round for the ‘faux meat’ manufacturer to date.

Planted will use the funds to launch its new ‘whole-cut’ line of products, further its international expansion and increase production capacity through the construction of an additional site.

"We are currently in the final phase of launching various whole-cut products such as our chicken tenders, patties as well as chicken breast,” said Planted cop-founder Christopher Jenny. “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.

European spread

“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.”

Led by private equity firm L Catterton, the latest funding round followed another successful financial injection in 2021 and comes just three years after it was founded in 2019.

Liz Gordon of L Catterton said: “Not only are their [Planted’s] 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.

‘Healthier, sustainable food system’

“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.”

Planted is available at restaurants and retailers across the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France and Italy, as well as over its own Europewide webshop.

The company produces all its products under a glass-house production facility in Kemptthal, Switzerland, the ‘first transparent meat production’ open to the public. As of May 2022, the company announced that production capacity was doubled to more than one ton of plant-based meat per hour.

Meanwhile, we covered some of the latest plant-based food and drink launches from manufacturers in our recent new product development round-up.