ImpactAlpha, December 16 – 2022 has been a hard year for champions of the plant-based diet. The economic downturn, VC slowdown, and rising prices of food have curbed the once-frothy market for startups developing animal-free alternatives to meat, dairy, and other food staples. Companies making plant-based products—rather than lab-grown foods—have been hit particularly hard.
Plateauing demand signals that plant-based alternatives have saturated the market of vegetarians and flexitarians says Sophie Bakalar of Collaborative Fund. The New York-based firm was an early investor in Beyond Meat, the poster child for the plant-based movement’s meteoric rise, and then drop.
** Click here to read the full text **
