Fake meat tech startup Planted raises $7 million to turn all-natural ingredients into plant-based meat

Growing population along with increasing life expectancy and incomes are major drivers for the rise in global meat demand. However, the current scale of the meat industry is beyond sustainable. Recognizing that meat is synonymous with culture, family and indulgence, Enter Planted, a food technology startup that has found a way to retain the positive attributes of traditional meat while removing the negatives. Planted uses cutting edge technology to turn all-natural ingredients into plant-based meat.

Yesterday, Planted announced it has raised $7 million (7 mill Swiss francs) to scale-up production, accelerate research & development and expand beyond its home market Switzerland. The funding for the seed round came from diversified investors with both smart and industry-focused investors including Blue Horizon Corporation, Hiltl AG, Good Seed Ventures, Mica Ventures, and Joyance Partners. Other private backers also participated.

Founded this year by Christoph Jenny, Eric Stirnemann, Lukas Böni, and Pascal Bieri, the Zürich, Switzerland Planted is an ETH Spinoff that creates tasty plant-based meat that mimics the taste, texture and mouthfeel of animal meat. The founders recognized the urgent need for alternatives to meat from intensive livestock farming. The company began research in 2017 and launched its first product in late spring of 2019. Planted’s first product, ‘chicken’ made from peas, has both the texture and taste of poultry.

Planted uses technology to skip the animal and turn natural plant-based ingredients into meat that mimics the taste, texture and mouthfeel of animal meat. For its first product, planted.chickenTM, only carefully selected and all-natural ingredients are used: pea protein, pea fiber, sunflower oil and water. Nothing else.

Its technology allows Planted uses all-natural ingredients without the need for additives and mimic the fiber structure of various meat types. They flexibly choose the protein source and
add the juiciness consumers miss with conventional meat analogues.

“This seed round will allow us to match the strong demand for our all-natural, 100% clean planted.chickenTM in Switzerland and abroad,” says Co-Founder Christoph Jenny. “We are planning to enter key European markets with our existing planted.chickenTM, as well as launch our new pulled pork product line,” says Co-Founder Pascal Bieri.

In order to match the soaring demand for new sustainable food products, the Company will make significant investments. “We will increase our production capacity to transform plant-proteins into meat by more than ten times,” says Co-Founder Eric Stirnemann. “The funding will allow us to further strengthen our cutting-edge R&D and continuously craft the tastiest products,” says Co-Founder Lukas Böni.