March 13, 2020

By Lynda Kiernan

Prolific alternative protein investor New Crop Capital has made its first investment in China, partnering with China-focused Dao Foods International to invest in Starfield Food and Science Technology Limited. 

Leading Chinese venture capital firm Matrix Partners China led the round, and directly following the close of the round, Joy Capital, another Chinese venture capital firm that had previously invested in Luckin Coffee, invested in Starfield as a follow-on investment.

Headquartered in Shenzhen, a city of 13 million people bordering on Hong Kong, Starfield is a next-generation alternative meat venture with its own R&D and manufacturing capabilities targeting the county’s 400 million millennials.

The company has already established strong relationships and partnership with more than 20 local and international restaurants to launch its plant-based meat products. Starfield has released the first iteration of its ground meat product which has been used in Papa John’s “Future Meatball Pizza”, Brut Eatery’s “Lemongrass Satay”, Nayuki Tea’s “Green Star Burger”, and Planet Green’s “Starfield Fried Rice”.

Starfield  also has R&D partnerships with Beijing Technology and Business University, Shenzhen University, and Jiangnan University – academic institutions that are leaders in research efforts in the alternative meat field. To-date, the company owns one invention patent covering a method of extracting glycophilic proteins from seaweed, and has submitted an application for another patent protecting additional aspects of the company’s technology. 

Company co-founder Cross Chen said that China is a large gourmet country, where its citizens consider food divine, and that it provides therapeutic and functions health benefits.

“We believe that plant-based food will be widely adopted in China, thereby further promoting the development of modern plant-based product technology,” said Chen. “We are grateful for our encounter with Dao Foods and NCC. They are our valuable partners who have given us great support in the effort to develop China’s plant-based food market.”

New Crop Capital is a specialized, U.S.-based venture capital fund that invests across Angel, Seed, and Series A funding rounds for early-stage companies with the potential to transform the trillion-dollar global industrial animal agriculture market. These include cultured meats, and plant-based meat, dairy, and egg products, as well as adjacent companies that promote the sale of such products. So far New Crop has invested in 30 alternative protein companies including Beyond Meat, which executed a successful IPO in May of last year.

New Crop is also a founding member and shareholder in Dao Foods International – an impact investment firm with a mission to help entrepreneurs develop new plant-based and cultivated meat products in China  – something that the company sees as a significant business opportunity with huge social and environmental impact potential. 

“Dao Foods has been on the look-out for promising companies and entrepreneurs that both understand the taste buds of millennial consumers, and have the skills to develop and continuously improve products to meet this discerning taste,” said Albert Tseng, co-founder, Dao Foods International. “We have enjoyed working with the team at Starfield over the past year, and are extremely excited about our investment and the next phase of growth for the company.”

“We are incredibly excited about this investment in Starfield, our first in China,” added Chris Kerr, CIO, New Crop Capital. “Through our partners at Dao Foods, we are tracking this sector in China very carefully. We believe there is great potential to accelerate the adoption of plant-based meats throughout the region. Each of the investors in this round brings significant strategic value, and we will contribute our international plant-based food expertise to the growth of Starfield.”

– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to the GAI News and Agtech Intel platforms. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.