Korean Food tech start-up ‘The Plant Eat’ receives 1.5 billion won investment
Food Tech Start Up The Plant Eat, which researches and develops plant-based alternative food products, has attracted 1.5 billion won worth of investment.
This investment was led by Stone Bridge Ventures, Lotte Accelerator and Future Play-KDB Capital. The investment will enable the company to become more resilient in researching sustainable meat alternatives. The co-investors plans to support not only through funds but also in other aspects of the business such as business expansion efforts, R&D support, and marketing.
Song Young-dong, senior manager of Stonebridge, who led the investment, said,
“The development of meat substitute food is a global mega-trend due to environmental / hygienic / regulatory issues. The Plant Eat is the fastest growing Korean food tech company that is creating a data-based R&D project for plant-based ingredient discovery process and applying them to their new products line of plant-based products in the market”
as the reason for the investment in the company.
Also, Lee Jong-hoon, general manager of Lotte Accelerator who participated in the joint investment said,
“The Plant Eat is a team in the hottest area of change in the global food industry, and the social value of its activities are very high.”
he also added,
“We decided to invest in the future and it’s people, rather than thinking about investing in the “business aspect” of the company.”
Founded in March 2017, The Plant Eat was established after winning the award for the 3rd Be The Rocket Start Up, under the Seoul National University Accelerator Program. Eat’s Better Mayo and Eat’s Better Dressing have been developed and marketed, starting with the “Yak-kong” (Korean Local Black Bean) mayonnaise made from domestic bean paste and soy milk in replacement of the egg yolk. In addition, The Plant Eat has been steadily securing its technological capabilities through patents and Vegan Certifications through the Vegetarian Society for their products.
CEO of The Plant Eat, Yang Jae Shik said,
“This recent investment will be used in moving and improving our food labs and recruiting more R&D personnel to research and develop more plant-based alternatives for a sustainable future”
he also added,
“In the years to come, we will continue to develop alternative platforms for meat, eggs and milk. We will also continue to create animal alternatives in forms of raw materials and finished products.
This article has been translated from a Korean News Article. There may be some translation discrepancies in the process of translating this article.
