Swiss foodtech startup Planted, known for its clean-label biostructured meat, successfully closed its Series B financing round of CHF 70 million (61 million GBP).

The round was led by L Catterton, the largest global consumer-focused private equity firm. Planted will use the funds to launch its new whole-cut line of products including its chicken breast, further its international expansion, and increase production capacity.‍‍

Founded in July 2019, Planted, the ETH (Swiss Technical Institute) Zurich spin-off that produces delicious meat from alternative proteins such as peas, oat, and sunflower through its novel biostructuring approach, focuses on the perfect bite with clean-label ingredients. Biostructuring combines protein structuring and fermentation. L Catterton is joined by existing investors such as Vorwerk Ventures, Gullspång Re:food, Movendo, Be8 Ventures, ACE, ETH Zürich Foundation, Yann Sommer, as well as new investor Tengelmann Ventures.

The fundraise follows the 2021 finance injection and reflects the traction the company sees in the market and with investors. Planted Co-Founder, Christoph Jenny says, “We are proud to be Europe’s fastest growing alternative protein company, with a strong track record of our still young existence in our established markets of Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and France, and fantastic early traction in new markets like the UK and Italy. With the additional capital, we will further accelerate our international growth, expand our product range with a line of whole-cut products, and build an additional production site”.

Jenny added, “Current plant-based meat technologies and solutions are not able to replace more than 1-3% of meat consumption, and therefore are not having the required impact on our food system. Consumers argue that this is due to a lack of taste, an overall unattractive price, and questionable ingredients. For meat-eaters to make a switch, it is crucial that we create ‘better meat than animals’ – meaning better taste, price, lower environmental impact, good ingredients, and healthiness. It is these parameters that are always at our focus”.

Investors see fast growth

“It is an honor to partner with Planted in its mission to revolutionise the way meat and protein-rich foods are consumed globally,” said Liz Gordon of L Catterton. “Not only are their products inspired by nature, but they are also free of unnatural ingredients, scalable, and able to be easily incorporated into consumers’ daily lives as well as traditional meat supply chains. With food as a strong lever to promote human health and environmental stability, Planted directly contributes to creating a healthier and more sustainable food system. We have strong conviction in the company’s continued growth, as more people across the globe continue to adopt alternative proteins into their lives.”

Launch of Whole Cuts

Powered by its biostructuring process, that combines protein structuring and biotechnology, Planted is launching its whole-cut product range. This proprietary technology allows Planted to design and structure larger pieces of meat with complex structure, texture, juiciness, and tenderness. Planted is convinced that biostructured proteins will outperform animal meat in the future in terms of taste, sustainability, health, efficiency and price.

"We are currently in the final phase of launching various whole-cut products such as our chicken tenders, patties as well as chicken breast. These are the first larger cuts of meat on the market without additives. We aim to launch in foodservice with these products with retail following shortly thereafter. As such, our chicken breast launch is being kicked off in collaboration with Michelin star chef Tim Raue and will be available to guests in his restaurant in Berlin as of 15th September 2022, followed by further launches in the foodservice sector”, says Jenny. 

Additionally, the over 65 employees who work in science, engineering as well as product development at Planted have been developing several other promising prototypes. “Now we need to test these with consumers, fine-tune and scale them. Strong backing by investors gives us the ability to fast-track testing and put substantial resources behind the scale-ups for successful launch across our various sales channels within the coming months”, Jenny continues.

Further international expansion and increased production capacity

Planted is available at restaurants and retailers across the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France and Italy, as well as over its own Europewide webshop. The company is preparing to enter several new European markets in 2023.

Planted produces all its products under a glass-house production facility in Kemptthal, Switzerland - the first transparent meat production open to the public. As of May 2022, the company announced that production capacity was doubled to over one ton of plant-based meat per hour. In the near future, Planted is planning to open an additional production facility. 

"It makes us very proud to see how our products excite so many consumers in the UK. Unique aspects such as our natural, healthy, non-artificial ingredients, the incredible technology bringing animal meat like fibre-structure and taste make all the difference. We are excited to further strengthen our international footprint with the current funding and extending our network of partners that share our passion for making a positive impact on this planet”, Christoph Jenny concludes.  

Advisors

Houlihan Lokey has acted as financial advisor and Walder Wyss has acted as legal counsel.