Evolution Meats scales up plant-based innovations with new investment from Unovis Partners

06 Dec 2019 --- One month after debuting its range of plant-based meat substitutes and snack products on the UK market, Dutch start-up Evolution Meats (formerly Green Meat Products) has received an investment from US investor Unovis Partners. The exact sum of the new injection of capital remains undisclosed by the company. The company currently produces a range of plant-based shawarma, satay and sausage products, with global expansion targets on the horizon following the recent rebranding.

“Our vegan doner kebab is 100 percent plant-based and can be sliced like a normal kebab. It is prepared like a chicken or veal doner on a standard vertical grill. We have also developed a satay line – Indonesian satay, Thai satay and Japanese yakitori satay. In addition, we have a vegan sausages range – hotdog, frankfurter, bratwurst and chipolata sausages,” Mark Laponder, Commercial Director of Green Meat Products, tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

Vegan satay by Evolution Meats.“Unovis’ investment was aimed at helping Evolution Meats establish its factory, improve its product portfolio and undertake a rebranding. The company is now ready to enter the international market,” says Kim Odhner, Managing Partner at New Crop Capital, who represented Unovis Partners in the investment.

Unovis Partners is a global investment firm and manager of New Crop Capital Trust, an international evergreen fund and an early entrant into the rapidly developing alternative animal-free protein space. Unovis’ mission is to transform the global food system by investing in solutions that facilitate sustained behavioural change and reduce dependence on animal protein products, the company says.

Post investment, Unovis supports founders by sharing their culinary knowledge, understanding of consumer habits, experience in food manufacturing and network of industry experts to “de-risk investments and build lasting companies.”

The plant-based revolution gathers paceVegan kebab by Evolution Meats.
Plant-based growth has expanded into mainstream this year and is expected to flourish in the years ahead. In October, Innova Market Insights ranked “The Plant-Based Revolution” as second place in its Top Ten Trends list for 2020. The gulf between plant-based and meat products is shrinking as vegan offerings are increasingly catching up to animal proteins in terms of smell, taste and textural sensations.

Earlier this week, Irish-based functional ingredient supplier Healy Group launched PrimaTex, an allergen-free textured pea protein for plant-based food applications. PrimaTex is developed to replicate the structure and appearance of formed meat, retaining a fibrous texture and bite, whether whole or minced. Preliminary trials have shown it to have a clean flavor profile, enhancing the ability to impart more subtle flavors without the need for additional masking, Healy Group notes.

“Although vegan numbers are rising globally. This has not been the key factor in the growing interest in plant based eating. Rather it is the well-documented boom in the popularity of flexitarian diets that is fueling the mainstreaming of vegan products and the use of vegan-friendly certification,” reports Lu Ann Williams, Director of Innovation at Innova Market Insights.

By Benjamin Ferrer