By Cara Waters
Billionare Jack Cowin’s plant-based meat startup v2food is expanding in China and Europe after raising $72 million from investors who are betting that more consumers will make the switch to meat alternatives.
The capital raising, which values the business at $500 million, was led by European food and agriculture venture capital firm Astanor Ventures alongside existing investors, the CSIRO’s venture arm Main Sequence, Huaxing Growth Capital Fund and ABC World Asia.
V2food founder and chief executive Nick Hazell said the successful share sale highlighted the appetite for alternative proteins around the world, with a shortfall between the amount of food produced today and the amount needed to feed the global population.
Nick Hazell of v2food has raised more money from investors to expand the startup’s operations.Credit: Supplied.
“Our ambition is to take advantage of this exciting opportunity for the Australian agriculture industry to be at the forefront of this growing market, which will help them grow and create new jobs,” he said.
“This isn’t about taking a share of the existing meat market, this is an additional opportunity to create a new market that could add $6 billion to our economy by 2030.”
Mr Cowin, who owns the Hungry Jack’s fast food chain and has an estimated personal wealth of $4.94 billion, took a stake in v2food alongside the CSIRO when the startup launched in 2019. He didn’t take part in the latest fund raising, but remains the biggest investor with a majority stake in the business, the company confirmed.
The meat alternative created by v2food, which uses protein extracted from legumes to make a ‘mince’ that looks, tastes and cooks like meat, is used in Hungry Jack’s Rebel Whopper burgers and sold in supermarkets across Australia.
Celebrity chef Neil Perry is also an investor and “restaurant partner” in the business, the company confirmed.
Nick Hazell of v2foods with investors Jack Cowin (right) and Phil Morle of Main Sequence (left). Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
While v2food would not disclose its revenue, sales in Australia across the non-meat category have boomed, with a study by independent think tank Food Frontier and Deloitte Access Economics this year calculating consumer sales of meat alternatives for 2020 topped $185 million.
In the Asian market, the company is focused on a new batch of products including one that resembles pork, and Mr Hazell said v2food had a strong team in China which is “closing some significant deals”.
Mr Hazell said protein alternatives were gaining global traction, with a record $US3.1 billion ($4.2 billion) invested in alternative proteins in 2020.
“We see ongoing significant market potential for v2food,” he said. “We’ve also got 18 projects going on right now with CSIRO, spanning nutrition, protein extraction technology, plant breeding technologies, soil carbon sequestration work, as well as a lot of flavour work and structure work to create ever more delicious protein.”
Hendrik Van Asbroek, partner at investor Astanor Ventures, said v2food could have global impact.
“Alternative meat has a crucial role to play in the fight against climate change,” he said, adding that v2food was “the right company to deliver this new generation of alternative meat across the globe”.
The latest capital raising brings the total raised by v2foods to $185 million, but Mr Hazell said the company was not looking to list its shares at the stock market at this stage.
“Right now, this isn’t a focus for us,” he said. “At a macro level, the size of the prize is building Australia’s plant-based industry and we want to be a major player in the global plant-based industry.”
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