The Food Tech start-up company The PlantEat, which researches and develops alternative food products, attracted $1.34M USD (1.5 billion won) in investment.
The investment was led by Stone Bridge Ventures and was co-participated by Lotte Accelerator and Future Play–KDB Capital. With the investment, the company will be able to gain momentum in research on sustainable meat substitutes. The joint investment company plans to provide financial assistance as well as overall support for the business such as market improvement, R&D support, and marketing.
“The development of alternative meat products due to environmental/ hygiene/regulatory issues is a global mega trend. The PlanEat is the fastest food technology in Korea to R&D and product data-based plant material discovery and development system.”
Song Young-don, senior team leader of Stone Bridge, who led the investment.
“PlantEat is the hottest team in the global food industry, and the social value of its activities is very significant,”
Lee Jong-hoon, director of Lotte Accelerator, who participated in the joint investment
The PlanEat was founded in 2017 after being top 3rd of Seoul National University’s Be the Rocket program. The company started off with yakkong mayonnaise, a pure vegetable mayonnaise made with Korean yakkong bean (a Korean black bean) and soy milk instead of eggs. In addition, it has secured technical skills through certification by the British Vegetarian Society and registration of Korean patents.
“This investment is moving the lab for research and development of alternative raw materials for a sustainable future and steadily increase the number of R&D personnel. We will continue to develop a platform to replace not only eggs, but also milk and meat, and increase the number of raw materials and products for meat.”
Yang Jae-sik. The Plant Eat CEO
