LiveKindly Collective Closes $335M Funding Round to Fuel Global Growth

Plant-based start-up platform LiveKindly Collective announced yesterday the close of a $335 million funding round as the company looks to extend its brands’ reach to new geographies, while also growing its portfolio through new acquisitions and strategic partnerships.

The round includes $200 million in new funding, along with $135 million that was announced last October, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $535 million. The Rise Fund, TPG’s impact investing platform, led the round, with participation from Rabobank’s investment arm Rabo Corporate Investments and S2G Ventures. Steve Ellis, co-managing partner at The Rise Fund, has joined the company’s board of directors as part of the deal.

Debuting as Foods United in 2019, LiveKindly Collective was launched by Roger Lienhard, founder of Zurich, Switzerland-based sustainable food and agriculture investment firm Blue Horizon, which maintains a controlling stake in the company. Lienhard brought on Kees Kruythoff, a former president at Unilever North America, as chairman and CEO in February 2020 and rebranded the company as The LiveKindly Collective after purchasing digital media platform LiveKindly Media in March 2020.

In addition to the media platform, LiveKindly Collective’s portfolio includes four plant-based meat and frozen entree brands, sold in more than 40 countries: Oumph! (Sweden), The Fry Family Food Co. (South Africa), Like Meat (Germany), and its newest addition, England’s No Meat, which the company acquired in January. The brands produce a variety of meat alternatives across chicken, pork, beef and seafood.

The company’s mission, Lienhard said in a press release, is to build a “global pure play in plant-based alternatives” that moves the food system away from animal-based agriculture.

“In just one year, we have raised a significant amount of capital, which testifies to the urgency of our mission and the enormous investment opportunity it represents,” he said. “We believe the momentum behind plant-based living will continue to grow in both the private and public markets.”

The company will use the new funding to fuel its push into new geographies, particularly the U.S. and China. Earlier this month, LikeMeat and Fry’s Family Food debuted in the U.S. at Sprouts Farmers Market. Like Meat launched four soy protein-based products — Like Nuggets, Like Grilled Chick’n, Like Chick’n Pieces and Like BBQ Chick’n — while Fry’s rolled out five soy and wheat-based products, Chick’N Nuggets, Breakfast Links, Chick’N Patties, The Big Fry Burger and Pea Protein Grounds.

These brands enter a competitive market for meat alternatives in the U.S., dominated by Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, with the latter forming a joint venture with PepsiCo for plant-based protein development earlier this year. As the company focuses on plant-based chicken products in the U.S., it will also compete against other emerging brands marketing chicken alternatives such as Daring, Simulate and Alpha Foods, as well as Kellogg’s Morningstar Farms brand.

The capital will also be used for acquisitions, partnerships and investments. Last month, the company announced a partnership with Midwest-based food and agriculture technology company PURIS Holdings, which manufacturers ingredients made from soy, lentils, pulses and corn, forming two joint ventures aimed at establishing more sustainable supply chains for plant-based food. One will be focused on innovation in waste reduction, while the other will support the use of regenerative farming and soil enhancing crops starting in Southern Africa, according to the company. The LiveKindly Collective has also partnered with RCL Foods to market and distribute its portfolio of brands in sub-Saharan Africa and with German brand Rival Foods to develop plant-based whole-cut meat products.

To accelerate its mission and ensure that its “mission is supported through best practices in governance and corporate stewardship,” the company also announced six new additions to its Board of Directors last month, including former Whole Foods co-CEO Walter Robb and former Unilever CEO Paul Polman.

In a LinkedIn post yesterday discussing the investment deal, Kruythoff said its partners, leadership team and board of directors have helped “make our dream of transforming the food system a reality.” Kruythoff also wrote that he has “never felt more hopeful” that LiveKindly Collective can reach its goal of leading a shift to sustainable, plant-based agriculture in the food industry.

“Conscious capitalism is about using business as a force for good; it’s about giving people products that heal the planet, that take care of our people and our animals,” Kruythoff wrote. “We believe that’s what consumers really want.”