JAPAN – Green Monday, Hong Kong-headquartered a social venture group for global food security has announced that it has raised US$70 million in financing led by TPG’s The Rise Fund and Swire Pacific Limited, marking the largest of its kind to date in Asia.
Participation from other institutional investors include CPT Capital, Jefferies Group and Sino Group’s Ng Family Trust. The round also drew new angel investment from Room to Read founder John Wood and renowned artist Wang Leehom, adding to the group’s growing list of high-profile backers, including James Cameron, Mary McCartney and Susan Rockefeller.
According to the company, the capital injection will be used to ramp up its research and development (R&D) efforts to expand its line of plant-based food products, increase production, distribution and supply chain as well as scaling-up its retail footprint and partnerships with existing F&B brands.
Within the next 6 months, Green Monday plans to establish a presence in over 20 markets across the world, increase its point-of-sales to over 40,000 and launch its flagship stores in mainland China and Singapore.
“Green Monday is one of the first movers in Asia within the rapidly growing global plant-based protein market,”
Chang Sun – managing partner, TPG China
“We are delighted to be partnering with global leading institutions and investors who share our vision and are aligned in solving some of the planet’s most imminent challenges like climate change, public health and food crises not only here in Asia but also worldwide,” said David Yeung, co-founder and CEO of Green Monday.
“Now with TPG’s The Rise Fund, Swire Pacific and our other mission-aligned partners, we are another step closer to achieving our common goals.”
Since its inception in 2012, Green Monday has been a pioneer of the plant-based movement in Asia, from making vegan and vegetarian foods accessible through its Green Common stores to developing OmniPork, the pork mince analogue that took the world by storm to distributing iconic plant-based brands like Beyond Meat.
The funding injection is for Green Monday Holdings, the group’s operational arm that includes OmniFoods (maker of food tech products such as OmniPork and Green Common (retail, F&B and distribution). The news did not specify a valuation for the privately held group.
“Green Monday is one of the first movers in Asia within the rapidly growing global plant-based protein market,” said Chang Sun, managing partner of TPG China, in a press release.
“We look forward to working with David and his team to further develop Green Monday’s product offering, expand their reach, and deepen the consumer’s strong connectivity to Green Monday’s mission towards a more sustainable future.”
It comes shortly after it was revealed that Green Monday has been selected as one of the 50 companies to make it on the Change the World list, ranking in at 32 and the only Hong Kong based company to appear on the list.
This year marks the sixth year of Fortune Magazine’s Change the World list, with 2020’s honourees emphasising the “crucial corollary” of collaboration as the world faces unprecedented challenges, from our ongoing coronavirus pandemic crisis to global inequality and the climate emergency.
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