V2Food tucks into $23.8m series A

V2Food, an Australia-based meat-free food products developer, has received A$35m ($23.8m) in a series A round led by one of its co-founders, national research agency Csiro-owned Main Sequence Ventures, The Australian has reported.
The deal was rounded off by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital China and family office Marinya Capital.
Founded earlier in 2019 by Main Sequence Ventures and Jack Cowin, founder of fast-food burger chain Hungry Jack’s, V2Food develops legume-based foods that emulate the taste of meat.
The company’s meat-free Rebel Whopper burger is available at  Hungry Jack’s and has racked up almost 1 million sales to date.
The series A capital will fund recruitment and a new production plant as V2Food prepares to scale up with new customer-facing partnerships and an expansion into Asia-Pacific markets over the next 12 months.
Hungry Jack’s parent company, Competitive Foods Australia, previously injected an undisclosed amount of seed funding into the business in October 2019.
Nick Hazell, founder and chief executive of V2Food, told local startup news outlet Smartcompany: “We believe there is an opportunity in Australia, but there is a much bigger opportunity to export globally — and particularly into Asia-Pacific, where there is a huge growth in meat consumption predicted.”