Prime Roots, led by Forbes 30 Under 30 listers, is eyeing expansion with the fresh cash. Americans eat an estimated 300 million sandwiches per day– but are appetites for lab-grown meat alternatives waning?
Alternative deli meat startup Prime Roots announced today that it has raised $30 million in its Series B, despite reports of cooling consumer interest in plant-based products.
This brings the company’s total funding to $50 million, with investors in this round including True Ventures, Pangaea Ventures and Prosus Ventures, among others. Prime Roots declined to comment on its valuation or revenue.
The startup was founded by Kimberlie Le and Joshua Nixon, who dropped out of Berkeley in 2017 to make meat and seafood alternatives. The Thiel fellows were featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Impact list in 2021. Their technology uses koji mycelium–the thread-like structure of fungus–to mimic the microscopic texture of meat. Prime Roots currently offers alternative cracked pepper turkey, black forest ham, hickory bacon, salami and pepperoni in deli cases across the San Francisco Bay Area.
“We’re tackling a whole new category that no one in plant-based has gone to,” says Le. “We’re not just taking plant-based proteins off the shelf and mixing them together. We are actually innovating in the deli, which is a very traditional category, but we’re maintaining that tradition in the techniques and flavors.”
From an energy and water perspective, plant-based meat has its perks. Raising livestock for food generates nearly 15% of total global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which is greater than all the transportation emissions combined. It also uses over 70% of agricultural land, exacerbating the effects of deforestation, biodiversity loss and water pollution, according to FAO.
Prime Roots claims that its methods are 89% to 92% more sustainable than conventional meats, as they limit emissions and land usage. Le says it takes the company just a few days to grow their koji mycelium protein, and any additional processes–like drying and smoking, for the salami—take another few days, compared to years of animal agriculture. Further, Prime Roots’ turkey and ham have no nitrates, preservatives, cholesterol, soy or wheat, and have a longer shelf life than traditional deli meats.
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