Meatless Farm launches £5m crowdfunding campaign
Yorkshire-based Meatless Farm is launching a crowdfunding campaign on investment platform Crowdcube, in the hope to raise £5m.
The plant-based company’s customers will have the opportunity to invest as little as £10. Meatless Farm plans to use the raised capital to invest in product innovation.
Founded in 2016 and launched on the market in 2018, in the last three years the Leeds-based company has received £38m in private investments.
In 2018 Meatless Farm also signed a seven figure deal with Channel 4, through the broadcaster’s Commercial Growth Fund.
The company, which makes plant-based sausages, burgers, mince and sausage rolls, is also looking into the possibility of being listed on the Stock Exchange.
“We are talking to London Stock Exchange about what the future looks like,” said Meatless Farm founder Morten Toft Bech to The Guardian. “There’s so many different financing possibilities for companies like ours at the moment because of our growth. We also talked to the to US exchanges. They’re very active in Europe and say they have access to more investors and growth.”
Meatless Farm, whose Product Development Team has been shortlisted for the Innovation Team of the Year at the Food Matters Live Awards 2021, increased sales by 150% in 2020 and has forecasted its revenue to reach £30m in 2021.
The crowdfunding initiative will launch on 22 June. The company says on its website that investment “will be what is referred to as a ‘convertible loan’ which means your investment will convert to equity at a discounted share price later this year (and earn interest until then), meaning you will receive more shares for your money than later investors. After that you will be an investor in Meatless Farm.
Shares will be held in trust by Crowdcube as a nominee company who will be the named body in the company’s register of investors and who will manage all the paperwork and things like updates and communications from Meatless Farm.
As an investor, you will have a share in the future long-term success of the business, for example, if we are subsequently in a position to pay dividends or if we are bought out.”.
The plant-based meat market in Europe was valued at $4.2 billion in 2020, up $800 million from the previous year.
