USA – Rebellyous Foods, a Seattle-based startup developing innovative production technology specific to the plant-based meat industry has raised US$6 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Clear Current Capital, Fifty Years, and Liquid 2 Ventures.

The investment round, which also attracted other funders including Agronomics and Vulcan Capital, will enable the food tech startup to accelerate development of its revolutionary plant-based meat technology.

The plant-based meat maker also plans to fast-track its manufacturing scaleup, immediately hire equipment and mechanical engineers at its Seattle research facility and expand product development to broaden its portfolio.

Rebellyous Food said that the latest round of funding enables the company to continue to thrive amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been linked to wet markets selling live animals, further underscoring the need to reduce global reliance on animal protein. 

Rebellyous Food was founded by Christie Lagally, a former Boeing engineer with a passion for planetary and public health.

“Bird flu, swine flu, and now COVID-19 demonstrate that keeping large numbers of animals in close contact with one another presents a tremendous risk for global health,” said Lagally, Rebellyous founder and CEO.

“However, to transition away from our heavy dependence on meat, it’s critical that we make plant-based meat affordable and widely available through innovative production technology.

“At Rebellyous, our mission is to make plant-based meat that is better than animal meat in every way, from price and convenience to taste and nutrition.”

As a part of the investment round, Rebellyous welcomed Ela Madej, Founding Partner at Fifty Years to its board.

“It’s our mission at Fifty Years to partner with companies solving the world’s biggest problems,” Madej said.

“We have been Rebellyous’ early supporter and I can’t be more excited to join the company’s board. We need a pandemic-proof food system that can meet the nutritional needs of our growing human family.

“We’re also happy to support job creation in a time when many other businesses are having to lay off workers.”

Global demand for plant-based alternatives is growing and the meat alternative category is expected to grow from US$4.6 billion in 2018 to US$85 billion by 2030, according to UBS Investments

The plant-based dairy category is also expected to go from US$21 billion in 2017 to US$37.5 billion by 2024.

Accelerating growth in the plant-based market has also seen Kate Farms raise US$23 million funding in a Series A-1 financing round to further support its plant-based medical formulas.