How China’s Beyond Meat Defied COVID-19 and Raised Millions in 2020
Founded during the pandemic, Chinese plant-based meat startup Hey Maet raised multi-millions over two rounds in just four months.
There is a Google and there is a Baidu. There’s Amazon and then there’s Alibaba. For Tesla China answered with Nio. And now there’s Hey Maet (not a typo), in response to Beyond Meat.
It’s hard to say that China isn’t a trend follower, though in recent years one could argue that (IMHO), when the Chinese copied, they sometimes do it even better.
With the current food craze in plant-based faux meat, this latest Chinese entry into the foray also wants to prove that indeed they can do it better.
Defying the pandemic odds
And they are off to a good start if the first nine months are anything to go by. The company was bravely founded on March 30th, 2020 in Shanghai — right at the peak of the global COVID-19 panic.
Since then, a lot of articles have been written about their early successes.
- Bringing together a “highly experienced team from both East and West”, including research experts in plant-based meat science.
