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Trail blazing food tech start-up Impossible Foods has closed another funding round – with $75 million raised.
Among the line-up of investors are Bill Gates, Open Philanthropy Project, Khosla Ventures and Horizon Ventures.The lead investor in the round is Singapore-based investment company Temasek.
The company is not providing additional financial details.
Carbon
According to a spokesperson: “Impossible Foods makes meat directly from plants – with a much smaller environmental footprint than meat from animals. The company uses modern science and technology to create wholesome food, restore natural ecosystems and feed a growing population sustainably.
“The company’s flagship product, the Impossible Burger, is made through a simple combination of plant-based ingredients.
“A key ingredient is ‘soy leghemoglobin’. Soy leghemoglobin is a protein that carries ‘heme’, an iron-containing molecule that occurs naturally in every animal and plant.”
Heme is most familiar as the molecule that carries oxygen in your blood, and is super abundant in animal muscle.
Environmentally friendly
Many of the investors have flocked to the company because of its eco-credentials: the Impossible Burger uses about 75 per cent less water, generates about 87 per cent fewer greenhouse gases and requires around 95 per cent less land than conventional ground beef from cows.
It’s produced without hormones, antibiotics, cholesterol or artificial flavors.
Patent
A spokesperson said: “Earlier this month, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued a US Patent covering Impossible Foods’ technology to use leghemoglobin in plant-based meat. The 200-person startup has more than 100 additional patents pending.”
Impossible Foods CEO and Founder Patrick O. Brown, added: “Our scientists spent so much time and effort studying a single molecule – heme – because heme is what makes meat taste like meat.
“It turns out that finding a sustainable way to make massive amounts of heme from plants is a critical step in solving the world’s greatest environmental threat.”
READ MORE:
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Plant-Based Impossible Burger Now Available At Popular Burger Chain
