Rebellyous Foods Hits Retail, Aims to Grow Plant-based Chicken Tech

Food tech startup Rebellyous Foods has more than a nugget’s worth of plans. With a new plant-based chicken nugget launching into limited retail this week, the company hopes its proprietary technology will eventually be adapted by other manufacturers to help grow the market for affordable chicken alternatives.

As meat production faces issues in light of COVID-19, now might be the perfect time to tell that story. Formerly known as Seattle Food Tech, the company was founded in 2008 to advance plant-based food technology. Not just looking to launch a brand, Rebellyous’ patented equipment and processes are key to its plan for growth according to founder and CEO (and former Boeing engineer) Christie Lagally. The company’s initial plan was to test the tech through foodservice, beginning with hospital cafeterias, in order to sell in larger quantities with less packaging.

Rebellyous has had 12 to 15 regular foodservice clients at one time including cafeterias, schools and ballparks, Lagally said. But once COVID-19 hit, only some of its restaurant partners remained open for takeout, and the company quickly decided to pivot to testing the process via retail — although the approach to market as a consumer-facing brand has been a “tough transition,” Lagally said.

“We’ll still be ready for our foodservice customers when they come back online.” she said. “The move into retail will help us build brand awareness and loyalty, which we can only hope will better position us in foodservice as well.”

Retail is a different ballgame, though, and a launch there was originally two years away, Lagally said. To work out the kinks the brand is launching regionally: it will debut one-pound frozen bags of Rebellyous nuggets with an MSRP of $5.99 this week in Seattle-based retailers Leschi Market and Vegan Haven. Both grocers had the flexibility to take on a new brand during COVID-19, she said.

The company had already rebranded to its catchier, consumer-friendly name, Rebellyous, last June after some foodservice partners said that they wanted to be able to better share the story behind the nuggets.

“While at our core, we’ll always be a technology company addressing the inefficiencies in plant-based meat production, we wanted a name that better reflected who we are and what we’re doing,” Lagally said.

As interest ramped up, Rebellyous set up a new Seattle headquarters in October in a former meat processing facility that can currently produce 150,000 to 180,000 pounds of plant-based nuggets per month. While that might seem like a whole mine’s worth of nuggets, Lagally said the goal is to scale the technology and eventually license it to other companies, plant-based protein companies and meat companies wanting to add plant-based options alike.

Beyond the environmental benefits, there are nutritional advantages to Rebellyous nuggets over meat analogues: a wheat protein-based Rebellyous nugget contains nearly triple the fiber and 40% less saturated fat and sodium than its meat-based counterpart.

Rebellyous has help from advisors and mentors, with a small board that includes tech and startup vet Peter Cnudde, co-founder of the Alternative Meat Lab at Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at UC Berkeley, and recently-appointed Ela Madej, founding partner at venture capital firm Fifty Years.

The company has capital in the bank to power the pivot, with $6 million in funding from firms including Clear Current Capital, Fifty Years, Liquid 2 Ventures, Agronomics and Vulcan Capital announced in April. The brand’s plans for the capital have remained largely the same despite the strategic change: to accelerate its development of replicable equipment and facilities, increase manufacturing capacity and hire equipment and mechanical engineers. It will also launch patties and tenders later this year.

“While on the sales and distribution side we’re moving into retail, our engineering focus has remained constant,” Lagally said. “We’re staffing up with more engineers to help meet the goals and timeline we set with our Series A fundraise which has given our investors the reassurance they need that we’re on the right path.”

However, it’s not the first meatless nugget. Plant-based brand Alpha Foods, which closed a $28 million funding round this year, sells its chik’n nuggets, strips and burgers while meat company Tyson’s blended meat brand, Raised and Rooted, launched last fall with pea protein-based nuggets and recently launched spicy nuggets and meatless tenders.

But it’s the technology that makes the brand stand out, Lagally said. Rebellyous’ equipment is custom-made to convert plant proteins into plant-based meat, taking the “unique requirements” of the proteins into account, said Lagally, who designed the machines. The process can eventually make a variety of products, she noted, but there’s a demand for heat-and-eat chicken products.

“If it’s simply available, high-quality and tastes great, it can be a huge game changer for helping people change their diet even if just one or two meals a week,” she said. “These options are truly better for people on a public health scale, and we wanted to be part of that solution.”

Lagally noted plant-based production offers “structure and stability” that consumers are likely to find enticing after seeing meat production issues. Replacing some equipment with plant-based equipment could help make meat production facilities less crowded, she noted.

“It’s unfortunate that the meat industry is set up in such a tightly knit situation that even Tyson was saying it’s breaking,” she said. “We believe a little nugget can change the world.”