Foods based on plant proteins are booming: in the United States, retail sales of plant-based meat substitutes for example increased by 23% between 2017 and 2018 (vs 2% for the food market) according to data. compiled by Nielsen and the Good Food Institute. In the same vein, the market for plant substitutes for animal products (milk and meat) has now reached $ 4.5 billion in the United States.
Consumer demand for plant substitutes for animal proteins is therefore there and operations within the sector bear witness to this effervescence … and to the interest of investors in these new products!
- With regard to plant-based alternatives to meat, Beyond Meat and Impossible Food have carried out the most significant recent operations:
- In May 2019, the Beyond Meat IPO was a success with an initial listing at $ 46 (84% above the IPO price) and a 163% increase in the share from day one, valuing the company $ 3.8 billion!
- Previously, it was Impossible Food that stood out after successfully raising $ 300 million. In total, the company raised more than $ 750 million during its various fundraising campaigns, allowing it to forge a partnership with Burger King, which now offers a vegetarian version of its famous Whopper in the United States.
- Sign of the times, big names appear in the capital of these companies, such as Leonardo Di Caprio, Jay-Z, Bill Gates but also Don Thompson, former boss of McDonald’s.
Not a week goes by without plant proteins making the news, whether it is the result of start-ups, such as Equinom, which recently announced that it has developed a non-GMO soybean even richer in protein, or industrialists. established, such as Tyson Foods, the largest meat producer in the United States, which jumped directly into the competition for plant-based alternatives to meat last June.
