According to a Reuters report which cites unnamed sources, Impossible Foods may be preparing for a public listing in the next 12 months which could either take the form of an IPO or a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), at a reported value of $10 billion or over. Reuters states that Impossible has already raised $1.5 billion privately.
The report claims that Impossible has been receiving the help of a financial adviser to discuss mergers with SPACs “after receiving offers at a lucrative valuation,” and noted that the SPAC option may “dilute existing Impossible Foods shareholders, however, by a greater extent than an IPO, the sources added.”
One example of a SPAC company in the plant-based space is Natural Order Acquisition Corporation, which was founded at the end of last year by vegan investor Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni with partner Paresh Patel, which closed its IPO in November, generating total gross proceeds of $230 million.
A public listing of $10 billion would surpass by severalfold the initial listing of competitor Beyond Meat, which was the first plant-based Unicorn company, and equal the reported target for the upcoming Oatly IPO. Other plant-based companies said to be preparing for a public listing include NotCo – which is aiming to be the first Unicorn company in Chile – and Eat Just, which is reported to be in plans for public listing by the end of 2021.