Plant-based meat start-up Tender Food has successfully raised over $11 million in Series A funding, with Rhapsody Venture Partners leading the round.
Existing investors Lowercarbon Capital and Safar Partners also participated, alongside new investors Claridge Partners and Nor’easter Ventures. Tender said the additional funding will allow it to further its goal of ‘revolutionising how we produce and consume meat’.
Tender, based in Massachusetts, US, uses its patented technology to ‘spin’ plant protein fibres into structured cuts of vegan-friendly meat. This results in ‘hyper-realistic’ products with simple ingredients in a range of formats, such as alternatives to pulled pork, chicken breast, seafood and steak.
The start-up’s goal is to become ‘the manufacturing platform for the industry,’ replacing traditional extrusion methods and ultimately animal agriculture. With the latest funding, Tender plans to scale up capacity at its new facility to millions of pounds and commercialise its first products at scale, while further lowering production costs.
Christophe Chantre, co-founder and CEO at Tender Food, believes that consumers are disappointed with plant-based meat products currently available on the market, stating that they are “too expensive, don’t taste good, and are mostly limited to burgers and sausages with long, unrecognisable ingredient lists”.
He added: “We need new technologies to address these challenges and drive meaningful adoption in this category, which is crucial for decarbonising our food system. Our technology allows us to create healthy products that taste great, have the structure and feel of animal meat and are much cheaper to produce.”
The company features its early products (beef short rib, pulled pork, chicken breast and crab) at a range of restaurants and universities in the Boston area. Its latest partnership is with vegetarian chain Clover Food Lab, bringing Tender’s products to all Clover locations in May 2024.
Chantre said that Tender’s production costs are “already low today, and we have barely started scaling”. He stressed that for the industry to grow, offering products that compete with animal meat on price is critical.
“Tender's technology solves this major challenge and will unlock tremendous industry growth,” he concluded.
The food-tech recently appointed Mike Messersmith, former North American president of Oatly, to its board of directors, aiming to further strengthen Tender’s leadership team as it accelerates commercialisation.
