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A grueling 12 months for start-ups in the food sector has resulted in one of the most high-profile ventures, billionaire-backed fake meat company v2food.
Founder and CEO Nick Hazell, a former Master Foods and PepsiCo executive, has left the business and the 4-year-old startup is shedding its $20 million Wodonga manufacturing plant as part of a strategic shift to ensure v2’s long-term viability.
V2food launched in October 2019 and has raised around $185 million, including a second Series B of $72 million in August 2021 for global expansion. Europe’s largest investment fund Astanor Ventures led that round, valuing the company at $500 million.
In the year The first Series B, valued at $77 million in late 2020, saw several Asian investors join the capital table, including Singapore’s state-owned Temasek Holdings. John B. Fairfax’s family investment vehicle Marinea Capital and Sequoia Capital China are also investors.
Jack Cowin, former v2food CEO Nick Hazell and then Innovation Minister Karen Andrews at the launch of v2food in 2019.
Part of that round was earmarked for the completion of a $20 million manufacturing plant at Wodonga on the NSW-Victoria border. Earlier this year, the company announced it would close the plant in December 2020, two years after opening.
The plant protein startup is a joint venture between Hungry Jacks billionaire Jack Cowin and CSIRO through VC fund Main Series Ventures. Made from whole grains (protein-rich grains), the starter ‘mince’ resembles meat. The product range includes burger patties, mince, sausages, nuggets and schnitzels.
You can buy the v2food burger as a Rebel Wiper at Hungry Jacks for $10.45. (Add second patty for $2.70, and/or bacon for $1.35.)
This time last year, in addition to its mineral, the start-up also offered $9 pasta-based ready meals sold at Coles and Woolworths. The company also has a beef-flavored v2 “mins” plant-based steam bun in China through its 2,300 supermarket chain Shanghai Lawson.
v2food’s rapid ascent has been widely covered by the mainstream media, but thanks to the support of a powerful public relations firm, few noticed a change in direction in February this year, in addition to the ABC, regional papers and specialty titles, which discussed the future of alternative protein publishing, Hazell’s replacement as CEO. , the company’s COO, Tim York.
“At the end of last year we started to reassess where our growth would come from next year and what changes needed to be made to our supply chain. That led to the final decision to close Wodonga,” York told Future Alternative.
Subsequently, the idea of the factory He said that since its conception in 2019, “the market has grown” and they are able to export the product under the “v2 proprietary recipe”. He was interested in finding ways to split the soybeans, which are the building blocks of v2 “mines,” but those plans are now on hold.
York says v2 has seen 50% year-over-year growth domestically over the past 12 months, and while execution methods have changed to address supply chain issues in international markets, the mission remains the same.
“The plan has always been to go global and be one of the world leaders in plant-based meat. That hasn’t changed,” he said.
“But as you move offshore, it means you need to look at where your costs are in the supply chain and the resilience of those supply chains. And there’s a decision shift for us that we need to move more of our ingredients closer to the end market.”
v2foods is also battling a highly competitive global market with several rival VC-backed startups, including Silicon Valley tech startups Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, trying to capture real estate in the alt meat space. such as Plant-Based, The Vegan Factor, Wildly Good, Veef, Next Gen and Why Meat Co, as well as “Roast Beef” by former Prey Shoes founder Michael Fox’s legendary food company Plant-Based, The Vegan Factor, Wildly Good, Veef There are also local challengers such as Neck General and Why Meat.
The change of guard at v2food was explored by entrepreneur Mark Borris on The Mentor podcast last month in a conversation with main sequence partner Phil Morrell, director of v2food, and Nick Hazell. They discuss when it is time to move on.
You can listen to the conversation on Spotify here , or the Apple Podcast here .
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