Investments & Acquisitions

Simulate Announces Acquisition by Ahimsa Companies

Simulate, the company best known for producing plant-based nugget brand NUGGS, has announced an acquisition by plant-based investor Ahimsa Companies.

As reported by Axios, Simulate required significant capital and opted to find a buyer rather than attempting to raise the funding. The deal was a combination of cash and equity, though the valuation of the company has not been disclosed.

“Ahimsa is very values-aligned, and they’ve been committed to this space and mission for a long time,” Sam Terris, co-founder and CEO at Simulate, tells vegconomist. “We were looking for a partner that balances pragmatism and optimism — a group that could help get alt protein economics to work on a large scale, while also willing to invest in higher upside technology. Ahimsa fit the bill — they have the infrastructure to drive sustainable growth for our existing assets, and an appetite to invest in emerging technology with a longer return profile.”

© Simulate

Fiber-spun technology

Simulate previously raised $50 million in 2021, in a Series B round that valued it at more than $250 million. However, there has been little news from the company since 2022, when it launched a range of food service products. Many consumers said they had struggled to find NUGGS in grocery stores, leading to speculation about whether the company was still operating.

“We’ve been heads down on R&D, developing our fiber-spun product line,” Terris explains. “It’s a new technology so it’s taken some time to iron out the kinks. We have a chicken breast that’s nearing scale-up readiness, as well as some functional prototypes of a few other exciting whole-muscle formats.”

He adds that Ahimsa has plans to revitalize the NUGGS brand, which he says has “a lot of potential”. This may involve line extensions.

© Simulate

“We have to make the products better”

Ahimsa Companies made its first acquisition, Wicked Kitchen, earlier this year. At the time, Ahimsa said that “consolidation will drive success for the plant-based industry”. According to Axios, the investor now has plans for two larger deals, with one set to be announced next month.

For Simulate, the acquisition opens up the possibility of further improving its products to appeal to a wider audience.

“Adoption is not moving along the timeline we had collectively anticipated,” Terris tells vegconomist. “We have to make the products better in ways that genuinely attract consumers. As it turns out, environmental and animal welfare concerns have minimal influence, if any, on most Americans. So if we’re trying to match the taste and texture of conventional meat, we need to be clever about finding other variables to 10x.

“To replace an incumbent technology, we have to develop a product that is undeniably better. We have a few hypotheses we’re going to test against this over the next few years.”

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