Leading plant-based brand, THIS™, launches £4M crowdfunding campaign to fuel growth
One of the UK’s most-exciting brands in FMCG, THIS™, is offering consumers the chance to invest with leading online private investment platform, Seedrs. The award-winning company, valued at £150m, is expected to launch one of the largest campaigns conducted across the platform.
Investors will be able to buy into the brand to fund innovation, expansion and work towards becoming ‘proper famous’. The investment will open over the next couple of weeks but consumers who pre-register will also have access to an exclusive 24-hour window to invest.
THIS™ was founded by friends Andy Shovel and Pete Sharman in 2019, to help force the world’s livestock into retirement. They felt there wasn’t a plant-based meat brand that spoke to meat eaters or delivered on hyper-realism.
THIS™ is now the fastest-growing plant-based meat brand, recording a 333% year-on-year net sales growth in 2021 and out-performing a fast-growing category. It has 10,000 retail distribution points across the big four supermarkets. It also has partnerships with the UK’s flagship foodservice chains such as Café Nero, Prezzo and ASK Italian, driving both visibility and volume.
THIS™’s products are designed to make animal-based products feel like a massive
waste of money. The business has a world-class team of food scientists behind its market-leading innovation and will look to drive this further following crowdfunding. It will be opening a new state of the art innovation centre in West London this summer, which will house its innovation team and act as the company’s research engine.
Earlier this year it launched its new innovation, Fat 2.0. The patent-pending fat, made from olive oil, delivers the bite and succulence of animal-based fat but without any of the downsides – such as having 80% less sat fat. This new market-leading ingredient was recently awarded Best Technology Innovation at the World Food Innovation Awards. It just launched two new sausage products, featuring Fat 2.0, which have received rave reviews, such as a Which? Best Buy Endorsement for Vegan Sausages. THIS™’s commitment to taste and texture is reflected in its repeat purchase rate. The average for the category is 20%, whereas THIS™’s is almost double that, at 39%.
The business has another 7 products planned for 2022 that will properly convince full on meat addicts. It will also be eyeing up new categories, launching more products that will further help meat-reducers, flexitarians, veggies and vegans eat more plant-based food.
One of the areas that THIS™ has really excelled is through its bold approach to marketing. It is this approach which has helped it reach a broad, meat-eating audience. It now recruits more meat-eaters into the category than any other plant-based meat brand. Nominated as Food Brand of the Year two years in a row, it has managed to fool over 7,000 people on camera that its products are meat from high profile influencers to an entire Italian food show. It caused a stir at the end of last year, cheekily mocking its rival Quorn by becoming the official sponsor of the namesake village Quorn in Leicestershire. The brand will be looking to super-charge its marketing with the help of crowdfunding, becoming ‘proper famous’ and driving more consumption of plant-based meat.
THIS™ reported a huge revenue growth of £17.5m in its first two years of trading. With its sights set on Europe, this growth will also be boosted by the business’s first international launch, as a result of the upcoming investment.
The company is taking on a global market that is set to be worth $290bn by 2035. The market is experiencing exponential growth fuelled by growing consumer appetite for alternatives amid increasing awareness of the health and environmental benefits of eating less meat. In the UK for example 46% of consumers want to reduce their meat consumption and 75% want restaurants, cafes and hotels to be offering more plant-based products. The last Seedrs campaign saw THIS™ become the fastest ever FMCG business to hit target and fastest ever campaign to hit £1.5m+.
Andy Shovel, Co-Founder of THIS™, said: “The growth we’ve experienced in such a short space of time is ridiculous. We know we wouldn’t be where we are without all the meat-reducers, veggies and vegans loving our food. So it feels like the right time to give them the opportunity to own a chunk of THIS™. By continuing to build an incredible R&D resource in the company, and keeping up our disruptive and funny marketing, we can eventually force the world’s livestock into retirement.“
Kirsty Grant, Seedrs’ Chief Investment Officer, added: “THIS is one of the UK’s most exciting alt-meat companies and has thrived in the two years since their last raise with us. The business has the potential to be a driving force in shifting Europe’s eating habits to being more plant-based. Such efforts resonate with our investor community who are increasingly more conscious of the impact their investments make. We are pleased to be once again supporting the THIS™ team as they raise growth investment.”
Potential investors can register their interest at Seedrs | THIS™ | Pre Registration with the investment opening over the next couple of weeks.
