ST. LOUIS — St. Louis-based Hungry Planet, a startup that makes plant-based meats, has plans to expand operations after raising $25 million in a Series A financing round led by one of the region's most prominent public companies.
The startup said Monday it has closed the oversubscribed funding round led by St. Louis consumer packaged goods holding company Post Holdings Inc. (NYSE: POST). Singaporean investment group TRIREC and additional undisclosed investors also participated in the financing.
Launched by co-founders and siblings Todd and Jody Boyman, Hungry Planet has developed plant-based meat products covering nine different protein types. The startup distributes its products through the foodservice industry, restaurants, grocery stores and e-commerce.
The Boymans began research and development for their company more than a decade ago and started quietly piloting their products about four years ago. Todd Boyman said the company began to scale up operations in recent years as the market for plant-based meats has more visibility. He said the company’s funding will provide the opportunity to more quickly advance its distribution and keep pace with the “explosive demand” from consumers for planet-based meats.
“What this does is lets us further accelerate what we’re doing, taking our meats out to any type of geography, any cuisine and any recipe and do that much more rapidly,” Boyman said.
Post and Hungry Planet in January announced they'd formed a strategic partnership that included an equity investment by Post, though the size of the deal was not disclosed at the time. In addition to the financing, Hungry Planet will work with Post's foodservice and retail units to bolster distribution.
Boyman said the backing from Post, as well as its other Series A investors, will allow it to expand its product distribution across the U.S. and international markets.
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