Meat has gone public with a bang! The company created by Ethan Brown – who was named alongside Patrick O. Brown, founder of Impossible Burger, “Champion of the Earth” by UN Environment in 2018 – produces a range of plant-based meats including the Beyond Burger, which is sold at Whole Foods and restaurant chain TGIF, among others. It priced its initial public offering at $25 a share, raising at least $240 million at a valuation slightly shy of $1.5 billion. On its first day of trading on May 2 its stock skyrocketed 163%, marking it the best initial public offering of 2019 – even beating Uber Technologies’ highly anticipated foray into the public market.
Proceeds of the deal will be used to expand current manufacturing facilities and open new ones, to finance research and development and to boost sales and marketing, according to the prospectus.
Meanwhile, Beyond Meat’s rival, Impossible Foods raised $300 million in its latest funding round. The company has raised more than $750 million, with help from investors such as Bill gates, Google Ventures and Serena Williams. But it CFO, David Lee, says the company is in no rush to go public.
Sales of plant-based products grew by more than 17% last year, while other grocery products only grew by 2%. This is good news—replacing consumption of animal products with more sustainable and equally healthy options is a key way to reduce consumption of these products, and therefore reduce humanity’s footprint in food production substantially.
See also:
Market Watch report on Beyond Meat
Photo credit: Beyond Meat Lifestyle Press Kit
