Mushroom Cloud: After $450 Million Invested, Meati to Sell for $4M

Two months after its primary lender pulled nearly two-thirds of the company’s available cash, mycelium-based alt-meat producer Meati – once valued at $650 million – is reportedly slated to sell for $4 million.

Meati CEO Phil Graves assigned the food tech company’s assets to attorney Aaron Garber, per documents filed in Adams County District Court in Colorado on Friday. Garber asked the judge to allow the buyer, listed as Meati Holdings Inc., to run Meati before the sale’s completion. Meati has raised nearly $450 million in external capital to date.

Garber wrote the sale would “preserve the operational value of the company, maximize recovery for creditors, and reduce collateral damage to stakeholders and interested parties when compared to a liquidation.” Additionally, he claimed the company would be worth less if sold for parts.

What went wrong? Call it fatal funding. In March, Meati filed a Work Adjustment and Restraining Notification Act (WARN) notice, warning that if it couldn’t secure alternative funding within 60 days, it would have to lay off its 150-person workforce and close its Thornton, Colo., production facility. Those 60 days were up on May 6.

• Rewind: Meati’s primary lender cut off access to the company’s cash on hand (reportedly without notice) after it missed a revenue target for March.
• A spokesperson told Nosh at the time the company had renegotiated with the bank after the target was missed and believed they were in good standing when cash access was cut off.
• In the WARN notice to employees, Graves called the lender’s actions “wholly unanticipated” and “unforeseeable.”

Last May, Meati closed a $100 million investment led by Grosvenor Food & AgTech with participation from Prelude Ventures, BOND, Revolution Growth and Congruent, bringing its total funding to nearly $450 million. The news was accompanied by a distribution agreement that brought three of the company’s products to 2,000 Kroger doors nationwide.

Meati expanded into a new day-part – breakfast – in January as it worked to capture a broader audience. As of 2024, its products are available in over 6,000 retailers nationwide, including Kroger, Super Target, Walmart and Meijer, among others.

A judge has yet to rule on Meati’s request for its buyer to run the company prior to the sale. According to court filings, the company has $158 million in assets.

Meati declined to comment on the sale.

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