Fundraising: Latest News 2023 - vegconomist: the vegan business magazine

Amschela

© Amschela

Amschela Launches Crowdfunder for Multipurpose Bag Made From MIRUM Alt Leather

May 29, 2023

Amschela, a sustainable luxury handbag brand based in the UK, has launched a crowdfunding campaign for its new AIRIUM bag. AIRIUM is made from MIRUM, a plastic-free vegan leather alternative produced by Natural Fiber Welding. The multipurpose “6 in 1” bag can be worn six different ways — from handheld to a clutch or a crossbody. The bag will be manufactured by the Veshin facility in China, which produces sustainable accessories made from vegan materials. The facility also has a commitment to treating its workers ethically, in an industry notorious for its human rights abuses. Vegan brand Amschela started out by producing conventional leather accessories, but transitioned to a vegan brand during the pandemic after learning about the environmental impact of the leather industry. The …

Organisations and Brands:Amschela

© Manna

56-Year-Old Vegan Restaurant Frequented by Paul McCartney Seeks Funding for Expansion

May 12, 2023

Manna, a vegan restaurant that first opened in London in 1967, is seeking funding to expand its brand and potentially open locations in other UK cities. After starting life as a vegetarian restaurant, Manna is now fully plant-based, serving wholesome, seasonal, freshly made dishes. It aims to cater to all allergies and dietary requirements, which includes providing kosher options. Historically, the restaurant has been frequented by celebrities such as Paul McCartney. Manna is a huge supporter of animal welfare and protection, hosting a variety of charity and fundraising events. In September, a fundraising dinner for All Dogs Matter was held at the restaurant, featuring actor Peter Egan (the charity’s patron). The animal rights groups North London Fox Sabs, Animal Equality, and Animal Rising have also …

Organisations and Brands:Manna

bettermoo(d) set to raise $10 million to launch its Moodrink

Image credit: bettermoo(d) FB

Bettermoo(d) Aims to Secure $10M for Vegan Alpine Milk Moodrink

May 8, 2023

Plant-based dairy alternative company bettermoo(d) seeks to raise $10 million by selling shares at $6.80 each in a non-brokered private placement. Before launching its trademarked Moodrink — a vegan alternative formulated to emulate the taste of Alpine milk — on the West Coast of Canada this September, the company is offering a financing opportunity. It requires investors to purchase one share of common stock and one share purchase warrant, which is exercisable for $9.80 per share for 24 months. A new leader in the alt dairy sector The announcement was made by its parent company bettermoo(d) Food Corporation (CSE: MOOO), (OTCQB: MOOOF), (Frankfurt:0I5A, WKN: A3D8PP). bettermoo(d) Food Corporation is an innovative plant-based dairy food and beverage firm based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with an established …

Organisations and Brands:bettermoo(d)

Vegan Whole Cut Steak

©Chunk Foods/ The Butcher's Daughter

Chunk Foods Raises $15M in “Biggest Ever” Israeli Seed Round to Begin Scaling Whole-Cut Plant-Based Steak

April 28, 2023April 27, 2023

Israeli startup Chunk Foods reveals it raised $15M in seed funding in November, in what the startup calls the “biggest ever” seed funding round for an Israeli plant-based company. Led by Fall Line Capital, The MIT E14 fund, and Robert Downey Jr. ‘s FootPrint Coalition, the raise will be used to construct one of the largest plant-based whole cuts factories in the world, which is set to be completed in Summer 2023. According to Chunk, the new state-of-the-art facility will be capable of producing millions of plant-based steaks every year. Made with minimally processed ingredients, Chunk says its steak offers the same meaty bite, texture and umami flavors of conventional beef. Using fermentation technology, the company says it is able to produce whole-cut products with …

Organisations and Brands:chunk foods

Ready Burger founders

© Ready Burger

Ready Burger Launches Crowdfunding Campaign to Fund First Sit-in Premises

April 24, 2023

Ready Burger, a plant-based fast food brand based in London, UK, is aiming to raise at least £250,000 through a new crowdfunding round. The funding will support the opening of Ready Burger’s first sit-in location in the south of England, and will also help the brand roll out its product range into food service and retail outlets UK-wide. Throughout this year, Ready Burger will work to develop new flavours and progress with new food tech partnerships. Ready Burger claims to have sold almost 500,000 products and generated over £1 million in revenue since it launched in 2021. Recently, the fast food brand announced a partnership with flavour and fragrance manufacturer Givaudan to use the latter’s award-winning PrimeLock+ technology. This imitates animal fat and locks flavour …

Organisations and Brands:Ready Burger

Barvecue Plant-Based Pulled Pork

©Barvecue

Barvecue Completes Seed Equity Round to Support World’s Largest Plant-Based Smokehouse

March 8, 2023

Plant-based BBQ brand Barvecue announces it has completed the opening capital raise for its Series Seed equity funding round. The company will use the funds to support continued growth of its retail and food service business, as well as sustaining operations of its Carolina Smokehouse production facility. Based in North Carolina, Barbecue produces a range of authentic, wood-smoked Pulled BVQ and Carnitas that replicate the taste and texture of pulled pork. In the last two years, its distribution has expanded to over 1,000 US grocery stores including Whole Foods, Harris Teeter, Giant, Gelson’s and The Fresh Market. Barvecue has also partnered with WebstaurantStore, the largest online restaurant supply store, to expand its food service business. In 2021, the company broke ground on The Carolina Smokehouse …

Organisations and Brands:Barvecue Carnitas

immi Vegan Ramen Broth

©immi

Healthy Ramen Brand immi Closes $10M Series A to Scale Up Plant-Based Instant Ramen

March 4, 2023March 3, 2023

Plant-based instant ramen brand immi announces it has closed $10M in Series A funding to help brings its healthy, low-carb and high-protein ramen to mainstream markets. The round was backed by a powerful group of celebrities, including Naomi Osaka, Usher and Apollo Ohno. Founded by Kevin Lee and Kevin Chanthasiriphan, immi sells a range of better-for-you instant vegan ramens in three flavors – Black Garlic “Chicken”, Spicy “Beef”, and Tom Yum “Shrimp”. Since launching in 2021, the brand reports “tremendous” growth in demand across its website, Amazon, and other online wholesale channels. Last year, the company began retail expansion at companies like Whole Foods, where it reports seeing strong, sustained retail velocities. The new financing will enable immi to continue scaling by hiring for key …

Organisations and Brands:immi Touch Capital

Watermelon

©Elo Life Systems

Elo Life Systems Closes $24.5M in Series A for Zero-Calorie Sweetener Made from Watermelons

February 15, 2023February 15, 2023

Ingredients company Elo Life Systems announces the completion of its Series A financing round, which raised a total of $24.5M. The funding will enable the company to accelerate development of its fruit-derived sweeteners by advancing US regulatory approvals, building pilot-scale processing capabilities, and begin market-testing its sweetener with consumers. Described as a next-generation ingredients company, Elo uses molecular farming (similar to precision fermentation) to produce commercially valuable ingredients that are traditionally difficult to source and extract. Through its processes, Elo says it can make these ingredients more readily available, sustainable and affordable. One of its first innovations, a plant-based sweetener that is 300 times sweeter than sugar with no calories, has the potential to become more popular than Stevia, Elo states, and can be used …

Organisations and Brands:Elo Life Systems

Salmon Filet

©New School Foods

Canada’s New School Foods Raises $12M to Scale Whole-Cut, Raw Plant-Based Salmon

February 7, 2023February 2, 2023

Plant-based seafood producer New School Foods announces it has raised $12M in seed funding for its proprietary, scalable technology that can produce “raw” whole-cut fish alternatives. Beginning in 2023, the company will launch its whole-cut salmon through a chef-only pilot program in North America. According to New School, the overall alt-protein industry has not yet fully tackled its greatest opportunity: whole cuts, which represent a majority of meat sales in North America. New School notes that whole cuts involve many complex structural challenges such as texture, connective tissue, muscle fibers, and other macrostructures that exist in animal proteins. To resolve this, New School Foods CEO Christopher Bryson invested heavily in academic R&D projects for three years with leading food science universities. Through his work, Bryson …

Organisations and Brands:New School Foods

Michroma Natural Food Colorings

©Michroma

Michroma Closes $6.4M in Seed to Commercialize ‘High Performance’ Natural Food Colorings From Mushrooms

February 1, 2023

Precision fermentation startup Michroma announces it has closed $6.4M in seed financing to fast-track commercialization of its sustainable, mushroom-derived natural food coloring. The round, led by General Mills-backed Supply Chain Capital, will also help the startup expand research and development capabilities and broaden its ingredient platform. Founded in 2019, Michroma is working to disrupt the global ingredients industry with high-performance colorants made from fungi through precision fermentation. To achieve this, Michroma focuses on creating ‘fungal biofactories’ to produce small molecules, like colors, more efficiently. “We see compelling market and consumer potential for Michroma’s fungal platform to create next-generation natural ingredients, from colorants to flavors, that are healthier and more sustainable while maximizing production efficiency,” said Noramay Cadena, Supply Change Capital’s Managing Director and Michroma Board …

Organisations and Brands:General Mills Michroma

abilion community investment round

© abillion

abillion Launches Community Investment Round After Seeing 20X Growth in Two Years

February 1, 2023

Sustainability-focused social media and e-commerce platform abillion has announced a community investment round on crowdfunding service Wefunder. The round will give retail investors and abillion’s one million members a chance to invest in the company — something which would normally only be possible following an IPO. Nicholas Cator, who has previously led funding rounds in Oatly, Chewy, and Lazada, will be the lead investor. 500 Global, which led abillion’s seed round, will also participate. The minimum investment amount is $100, and investors do not need to be accredited. The news comes as abillion reports that the platform has grown by twenty times over the past two years. The community now features more than 2.5 million user-generated product reviews, while 4,700 Software-as-a-Service customers are on recurring …

Organisations and Brands:abillion

Omni Dog Food

Image courtesy of ProVeg

Vegan Dog Food Producer Omni Smashes £400K Crowdfunding Target in 15 Minutes

January 27, 2023

One of the UK’s fastest-growing vegan dog food producers, Omni, recently launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Seedrs platform, and announces today it has set a new record in its category, having surpassed the target within 15 minutes of the campaign going live. Consumers wishing to participate in the crowdfunder have been offered the chance to invest for as little as £11. Clearly, many saw it as a sound business opportunity; Omni has seen 30% average month-on-month revenue growth since launching in May 2021 with over 70% of its customers on subscription plans, and the brand sold over half a million meals in 2022. High profile investors After graduating from the sixth cohort of the Proveg Incubator in 2021, the brand went on to raise …

Organisations and Brands:Omni

Plant-Based Fried Shrimp

©The ISH Company

The ISH Company Raises Over $5M in Oversubscribed Round to Accelerate Plant-Based Shrimp and More

January 24, 2023

Alt-seafood startup The ISH Company announces it has raised more than $5 million in seed funding to accelerate growth and development of its plant-based seafood products. The oversubscribed round was led by ACCELR8, with participation from Stray Dog Capital, and multiple angel investors. The funds will primarily be used to propel the company’s market launch, create more innovative products, and lay the groundwork for future partnerships. ISH, whose name stands for Innovative, Sustainable, and Healthy, produces a range of plant-based seafood made from natural ingredients such as green coconuts and algae. Its flagship product, Shrimpish®, is a premium, more sustainable alternative to shrimp that launched in select US restaurants, colleges, and universities in early 2022. “The plant-based market has seen incredible growth over the past …

Organisations and Brands:ACCELR8 Stray Dog Capital The ISH Company

Plant-Based Hot Dog

©Sensible Hot Dogs

Canada: Sensible Hot Dogs Raises Nearly $12M to Disrupt American Hot Dog Market

January 20, 2023

Sensible Hot Dogs, an innovative plant-based hot dog company, announces it has raised $11,990,000 in non-brokered private financings. The announcement follows Sensible’s public debut on Canada’s NEO Exchange in 2022 under the symbol “HOTD.” Sensible Hot Dogs says it is on a mission to recreate hot dogs, America’s favorite street food, using less processed and more natural ingredients. According to The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, Americans consume a massive 20 billion hot dogs every year. Currently, 95% of American homes eat hot dogs, while the average US resident consumes about 70 hot dogs annually. Despite their popularity, the negative health consequences of eating conventional hot dogs have been well-documented. In one study, University of Michigan researchers found that consuming a single hot dog …

Organisations and Brands:NEO Exchange Sensible Hot Dogs

Hooray Foods Improved AWESOME Bacon

©Hooray Foods

Hooray Foods Opens First-Ever WeFunder Campaign to Reach Price Parity with Animal Bacon

January 18, 2023

Plant-based meat innovator Hooray Foods announces the launch of its first WeFunder equity crowdfunding campaign. Officially opening Jan. 25th, Hoorays says the Community Round gives its customers and fans an opportunity to invest for as little as $100 in exchange for company equity and product perks. Ahead of the public launch, the brand says its campaign preview is now live for the company’s biggest supporters. Wefunder is a platform that allows the general public to invest in pre-IPO startups alongside venture capitalists. Upon reaching this Community Round’s goal of securing $500,000, Hooray says it plans to expand distribution for its innovative plant-based bacon. The company will also increase research and development efforts to help it fill the market gap for indulgent plant-based meats. Achieving price …

Organisations and Brands:Hooray Foods WeFunder