Impossible Foods, Which Can Make A Vegetarian Burger Taste Exactly Like A Beef Cheeseburger, Raises Funding

The California based four year old Impossible Foods just announced that a marvellously successful Series D funding round resulted in them raising $108 million.

The round was led by UBS and includes investments from Viking Global Investors, Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates and Horizons Ventures. “This latest financing ensures that we have more than enough runway to bring our first products to market. We are grateful to our visionary investors, whose support will enable us to transform the global food system by providing consumers with delicious and sustainable meat and dairy foods made directly from plants,” said Patrick Brown, the CEO Of Impossible foods in a press release.

As Brown states, Impossible Foods is a unique venture in which the company tries to recreate meat and dairy flavours using plants. By analysing animal products at a molecular level, they come to understand the makeup of such products, and replicate them using plant materials; essentially transforming plants into meats and dairy products using science.

A scroll through the Impossible Foods website sees a write-up of the ‘Impossible Cheeseburger’, which tastes exactly like a regular beef burger, but is made with plants. Reviews of sneak tastes of the Impossible Burger by reputed publications like the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times magazine indicate that the burger tastes exactly like its meat laden counterpart.

 
“The burger on the hotplate in front of me is sizzling like meat. The patty is browning like meat and gives off a beefy smell. When I bite into it, sandwiched between bun and lettuce, it certainly tastes like meat, its juices running down my chin,” said Tim Bradshaw in an article about the Financial Times tasting the burger. Additionally, check out the Wall Street Journal’s look into the Impossible Foods’ lab:

Seeing as the Impossible Burger does live up to seemingly impossible taste expectations, it’s understandable why Impossible Foods is gaining investments and interest from big market spenders. Many experts point to a gradually rising food crisis; as the demand for meat and dairy go up, the availability goes down. Impossible Foods seems like a plausible answer to the escalating problem.