Mirae Asset Invests a Total of 500 Billion KRW in 'Impossible Foods' Alternative Meat Market

[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon] Mirae Asset Group has made a preemptive investment in the high-growth alternative meat market.

According to the investment industry on the 17th, since March 2020, Mirae Asset Group, led by Mirae Asset Global Investments' PEF division, has invested a cumulative amount of 500 billion KRW in the U.S. startup Impossible Foods, which develops alternative meat.

Impossible Foods is a startup founded in 2011 by Patrick Brown, a biochemist and Stanford University alumnus. They developed plant-based hamburger patties by extracting the 'heme' component, a key ingredient in hemoglobin that gives meat its flavor, from plant roots.

Famous investors in Impossible Foods include Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft; Li Ka-shing, chairman of Hong Kong's Cheung Kong Group; and American rapper Jay-Z.

Institutional investors include Temasek, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, global venture capital firms such as Horizons Ventures and Khosla Ventures, and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. These institutional investors are known to have executed new and additional investments under investment terms negotiated and led by Mirae Asset Global Investments.

Impossible Foods is a plant-based alternative meat developer and manufacturer, competing as a leading company in the alternative meat market with Beyond Meat, a NASDAQ-listed company.

The "Impossible Burger," produced using Impossible Foods' patties, is supplied to over 7,000 locations worldwide, including restaurant franchises such as White Castle, Red Robin, Qdoba, and Disney theme parks.

Recently, due to increased demand in retail channels, Impossible Foods is also focusing on expanding channels with major large-scale retailers such as Walmart, Costco, Target, Trader Joe's, and Kroger.

In addition to major large-scale retailers, global F&B companies such as Starbucks and Burger King have launched and are selling products using Impossible Foods' alternative meat. Based on their technology, they are also promoting the launch of various plant-based alternative products such as plant-based fish and milk.

Mirae Asset continues to invest in Impossible Foods because of the growth potential of the alternative meat market. As consumer trends align with the spread of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management, alternative meat has been spotlighted as a solution to reduce carbon emissions, leading to rapid growth of related brands and products.

According to global investment bank UBS, the plant-based meat market is expected to grow rapidly from 5 trillion KRW in 2018 to 93 trillion KRW by 2030. As of 2020, the U.S. alternative meat market size was 1.4795 billion USD, accounting for 24.4% of the total market.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.