Impossible Foods, the US-based vegan meat developer that counts internet and technology group Alphabet as an investor, has raised $300m in funding, Reuters reported yesterday.
The round was co-led by Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek and Horizons Ventures, the investment arm of entrepreneur Li Ka-shing, according to the Financial Times, and it valued the company at $2bn, Impossible CFO David Lee told Reuters.
The round was confirmed today, and it included celebrity investors Serena Williams, Will.i.am, Jay-Z, Katy Perry, Ruby Rose, Trevor Noah, Alexis Ohanian, Kal Penn, Jay Brown, Kirk Cousins, Paul George, Questlove, Phil Rosenthal, Jaden Smith and Zedd.
Founded in 2011, Impossible is developing meat substitutes using soy and potato proteins, and its lead product is a vegetarian burger that is already sold in supermarkets.
The burger is offered as an option at selected branches of international fast food chain Burger King, and the companies plan to ramp up that partnership to a far greater number of restaurants in the near future.
The funding will support an expansion of the company’s production capacity that will include the addition of a second manufacturing line at its California facility, Lee told the FT. The move will meet increased demand spurred by its launch in Asia in March this year.
Impossible has now raised more than $750m altogether, it said. Temasek, Horizon Ventures, venture capital firm Khosla Ventures, charitable foundation Open Philanthropy Project and entrepreneur Bill Gates supplied $75m for the company in 2017.
The company had previously secured $108m in a 2015 series D round led by financial services firm UBS that also featured Horizons Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates and hedge fund Viking Global Investors.
GV, the Alphabet subsidiary then known as Google Ventures, had joined Khosla Ventures, Horizons Ventures and Microsoft founder Bill Gates to provide $75m of funding for Impossible when it came out of stealth the year before.
The deal was disclosed less than two weeks after after another vegetarian meat developer, Beyond Meat, floated in a $241m initial public offering. Its share price has almost tripled since then.
This article was amended on May 15 to reflect an official press release.
