Plant-based meat company to scale-up production and accelerate R&D

Credit: Planted

Planted, which creates plant-based meat that mimics the taste, texture and mouthfeel of animal meat has raised seven million Swiss francs in its latest seed round to scale-up production, accelerate research and development (R&D) and expand beyond its home market Switzerland.

“The funding will allow us to further strengthen our cutting-edge R&D and continuously craft the tastiest products,” said co-founder Lukas Böni.

A growing population, along with increasing life expectancy and incomes, are major drivers for the rise in global meat demand, the company has said. Recognising that meat is synonymous with culture, family and indulgence, Planted has said it has found a way to retain the positive attributes of traditional meat while removing the negatives.

Planted uses technology to 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.

The technology allows the company to:

• Mimic the fibre structure of various meat types
• Use all-natural ingredients without the need for additives
• Flexibly choose the protein source
• 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 percent clean planted.chickenTM in Switzerland and abroad,” added co-founder Christoph Jenny.