Investments & Finance

Next Gen Secures $10M in Highest Ever Plant-Based Seed Round  

Following its recent regulatory approval for cultured meat, Singapore has rapidly become a leading centre of innovation for food-tech startups. One such company is Next Gen, which reveals today it has closed what it says is the largest seed round ever in the plant-based sector at $10 million, and also announces the launch of TiNDLE, its new plant-based chicken brand.

Next Gen is the brainchild of Timo Recker and Andre Menezes, CEO and COO respectively. Founder Timo Recker was previously behind plant meat producer LikeMeat, which was 100% acquired by The LIVEKINDLY Collective last year. Co-founder Andre Menezes was previously Managing Director of Country Foods Singapore, where he was involved in making Impossible Foods a household name in Singapore. In recent years he has played a key role in the introduction of plant proteins throughout Asia.

Tindle Burger Next Gen
©Next Gen

TiNDLE is set to launch in restaurants in the city-state next month. Fresh funds from the record-breaking seed round will be used for the global launch of the alt-meat startup’s consumer brand as well as continued R+D of new plant-based products. Based on data from PitchBook, Next Gen claims it to be the largest seed round ever raised by a plant-based food tech company.

As reported by vegconomist, Next Gen previously raised seed financing of $2.2 million after launching last October. The new financing, which features investors Temasek, K3 Ventures, New Ventures (an arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board), and German wholesaler Metro’s NX-Food, is the first time the startup has taken external investment. Impressively, the funding far exceeded its original target of $7 million. 

Watch theTiNDLE video here:

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“It was clear to me after I was inside the meat industry for so long that it was not going to be a sustainable business in the long run,” Andre Menezes told TechCrunch.

“This is a strong validation of our team, our technology, our business model, our product and our expansion strategy,” commented Timo Recker on the raise.

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