SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Vegetable meat producer Fazenda Futuro announced this Wednesday that it has received an investment equivalent to around 300 million reais, resources it will use to expand its operations to the largest market in the world, the United States, which moves 5 billion to 6 billion dollars a year in the sector.
–>
With the series C round, the value of the company reached 2.2 billion reais, the company’s founder and president, Marcos Leta, told Reuters. In the previous fundraising, which took place about a year ago, the company had raised 110 million reais, with an assessment of 715 million reais, said the executive.
“We entered the United States about a month ago. We are in the pre-operational period, closing contracts with distributors and retailers to start selling next year”, stated Leta.
Fazenda Futuro, which in the US will work under the “Future Farm” brand against rivals such as Beyond Foods and Impossible Foods, was created in 2019 and arrived in Europe at the end of 2020 in markets that include France, Italy, Netherlands and Germany.
In England, the company distributes its products through Sainsbury’s, the second largest retailer in the country. The company, which claims to sell non-transgenic soy, pea and beet products, also arrived in Canada through the stores of the retailer Whole Foods, controlled by Amazon.
According to Leta, meat substitute products do not only serve vegan or vegetarian consumers. Many people who eat meat of animal origin are often interested in reducing this consumption, a trend that motivated large slaughterhouses such as JBS, Marfrig and BRF to launch rival products in Brazil.
Fazenda Futuro’s latest funding round involved previous investors – Monashees, Go4it Capital, BTG, Turin MFO and Enfini Ventures – and included XP and the European foodtech fund Rage Capital, the company said.
All of the company’s production comes from a factory in the State of Rio de Janeiro, with a current capacity of 600 to 700 tons per month. With new investments, the company will be able to expand it to 1,200 to 1,300 tons per month, said Leta.
“This capacity supports our growth in the next two years, but the United States, accelerating, will probably need another factory to guarantee our production”, said the executive, adding that “for now the idea” is that the new factory be built in Brazil .
Asked about Asia, Leta stated that Fazenda Futuro is already in discussions with a distributor in China, “but our main focus in the coming years will be the USA, Europe and Brazil.”
(By Alberto Alerigi Jr.)
See too
+ How podcasts can help Brazilians’ financial education
+ Mystery: woman discovers that she is not the biological mother of her own children
+ Lemon-squeezing trick becomes a craze on social media
+ Chef playmate creates aphrodisiac recipe for Orgasm Day
+ Mercedes-Benz Sprinter wins motorhome version
+ Anorexia, an eating disorder that can lead to death
+ US agency warns: never wash raw chicken meat
+ Yasmin Brunet breaks the silence
+ Shark is captured in MA with the remains of youngsters missing in the stomach
+ See how much it costs to eat at the MasterChef judges’ restaurants
+ Auction of cars and motorcycles from Kombi to Nissan Frontier 0km
#Fazenda #Futuro #raises #R300 #million #targets #USA #ISTOÉ #MONEY