Aussie venture capital firm Blackbird Ventures has led a NZ$10 million (US$6.87 million) Series A for SunFed, a New Zealand-based maker of plant-based meat alternative products made from pea protein.
Entrepreneur Sir Stephen Tindall and the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund also participated in the round. Under the terms of the deal, Blackbird has secured an 11 percent stake in the company, Tindall a 5 percent stake, and the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund, a 1.4 percent stake.
Launched in 2017 and founded by Shama Sukul Lee and her husband Hayden Lee in Auckland, SunFed uses a proprietary process and custom hardware to produce meat substitutes that taste and feel like meat, but contain three times the iron of beef.
“We are a product-led engineering company,” Shama Lee told Idealog. “Our products not only have to be as meaty and delicious as meat, but they also have to be clean and healthy. To achieve this, we had to engineer our own hardware. It took us over three years and a lot of Kiwi ingenuity to build.”
Extracted from ground yellow split peas, unlike soy or whey, pea protein is not a allergen, is non-GMO, is gluten-free, vegan, kosher, and is comparatively more environmentally-friendly than other protein sources. Pea protein also is cholesterol-free, helps control blood pressure, provides a feeling of satiety, and is an effective source of protein for muscle building.
The company’s initial product – Chicken-Free Chicken – is gluten-free, soy-free, and GMO-free, and has a track record of selling out in national supermarkets across New Zealand. In the near future the company plans to release its next product – Bull-Free Beef, and has started development of plant-based bacon rashers, pork, and tuna with an expected launch in 2019.
“We have worked on how to take plant proteins and make meat out of them. To then make chicken or beef or pork, it’s not much of a stretch, once you have the product texture right, then you have a good foundation to work from,” said Lee.
Easy Peasy
Pea protein’s growing popularity is not only being reflected in the growing number of startups using it as a base for their plant-based products, but also in the capital being committed to the category.
In October 2016, New York-based pea protein snack chip startup, Proformance Foods, raised $1.2 million in a round led by “one of the 10 largest CPG companies in the world.”
That same year, Google Ventures led a $30 million Series B for Ripple Foods, along with other investors, Prelude Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, Tim Koogle, Khosla Ventures, S2G, Collaborative Fund, Blueberry Ventures, Seth Goldman, and Radicle Impact.
One of the largest commitments was announced in the first days of 2017, when French specialty ingredient supplier, Roquette, announced it was investing C$400 million (US$300 million) – the largest pea protein investment made in the food sector to date – to build the world’s largest pea processing facility in Canada.
However, months later, in September 2017, Hollywood director James Cameron and his wife, Suzy Amis Cameron, announced the formation and launch of Verdient Foods – the largest organic pea protein facility in North America.
“As eating habits change and as desire increases for greater choice when selecting sources of food, we see alternative proteins like Sunfed playing a large part in consumers’ lives,” said Sir Stephen Tindall. “We are very excited to be able to play a part in the Sunfed journey.”
Expansion
The capital raised through this round will be used by the company to support its overseas expansion, with its first foreign market being Australia. A portion of the funds also will be earmarked for the expansion of the company’s team – particularly for Australian sales, and to augment the engineering and operations teams in New Zealand.
“We have been studying the future of food for some time and it is a theme we are extremely excited to be investing in,” said Samantha Wong, partner with Blackbird Ventures. “We found Shama’s mission-driven approach and relentless focus on the customer has resulted in a product that even the most committed carnivores would enjoy. We look forward to more people around the world being able to enjoy Sunfed.”
-Lynda Kiernan