CHUNK FOODS IS THE LATEST ADDITION TO STRAY DOG CAPITAL’S PORTFOLIO OF INDUSTRY LEADING COMPANIES. THE STARTUP IS LEVERAGING CUTTING-EDGE SOLID-STATE FERMENTATION TO PRODUCE WHOLE-CUT PLANT-BASED MEAT PRODUCTS.
Stray Dog Capital, a venture capital fund specializing in alternative protein investments has today announced an investment into Chunk Foods, an Israel based plant-based meat company. The current round totals USD $2 million dollars and includes investments from Good Seed Ventures, and the E14 Fund.
In recent years, the plant-based industry has grown rapidly drawing the interest of major investment groups and food conglomerates alike leading to massive market momentum for sustainable proteins. According to the Good Food Institute, a leading non-profit providing information and resources for professionals in the industry, alternative protein companies saw USD $3.1 billion in investment dollars throughout 2020. This is greater than three-times more than in any other single year in the industry’s history. Startups utilizing fermentation technology—like Chunk Foods—received almost USD $600 million in investments in 2020, more than double the amount raised in 2019 indicating rapid growth in the market segment.
Chunk Foods was started in an effort to utilize rapidly developing fermentation technology to fill a gap in the plant-based meat market. Originating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the startup is the first to enable large-scale manufacturing of healthy, realistic whole-muscle meat alternatives. Using solid state fermentation Chunk Foods will first be focused on developing beef alternatives using just a handful of healthy, recognizable ingredients – no gums, stabilizers, or GMOS will be used in these products.
“We are thrilled to welcome Chunk Foods to our portfolio,” said Johnny Ream, Partner at Stray Dog Capital. “Development of plant-based alternative proteins that resemble traditional whole-muscle products such as steak are often regarded as the most difficult and complex to achieve. We believe Chunk’s technologies and proprietary processes have strong potential to play a significant role in bringing these types of products to market and we’re looking forward to being on this journey with the team.”
The current round of funding will be used to further improve the start-up’s products, as well as make hires in key areas. Current openings at the company are displayed on the Chunk Foods’ website.
“Consumers expect healthy, nutritious and clean label options for their daily staples like meat and fish. They want their food to be aligned with their values, and they’re no longer willing to make compromises,” says Amos Golan, founder and CEO of Chunk Foods. “Whole muscle cuts of beef such as sirloin, chuck or ribs have been the Holy Grail for alternative meats as they account for about 60% of the beef market in the USA. We have overcome the technological limitations of other approaches by naturally creating delicious and realistic products with many of the attributes of meat, while ensuring a clean and short ingredient list using our novel fermentation technology. Stray Dog Capital shares our vision of the future of food and we’re excited to be partnering to make that vision into reality.”
For more information, please visit www.straydogcapital.com and www.chunkfoods.com.
