One of Silicon Valley’s favourite plant based food companies is coming to fast food restaurants next.
What’s happening:
- Plant based food startup Tender Food has raised $11M USD in a Series A financing round
- The round was led by Rhapsody Venture Partners and Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital
Going deeper:
- Tender Food has also announced they have entered into a new partnership with fast food chain Clover Food Lab in the Boston area to roll out their products into their restaurants
Why it matters:
- The new round from Tender Food represents one of the largest and most notable venture capital financing rounds to recently occur for a startup focused on plant based foods
- The new deal between Clover Food Lab and Tender Food is the first time Tender Foods has ever commercialized their products, having previously been focused entirely on research and development
Yes, but:
- Plant based food startups and publicly traded companies have struggled to find traction, notably with Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND) seeing a major decline in their share price since their IPO
The intrigue:
- Many venture capital funds have shifted their focus from plant based foods to lab grown meat, which has been gaining enormous momentum around regulatory approvals and a recent philanthropic donation from Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos
