Are You Ready For a Juicy IPO?
It's in a buzzy industry
By Kinsey Grant
@kinseygrant |
Beyond Meat, a startup that makes plant-based meat products, has filed for an IPO. The size of the offering? $100 million, but that number's just a placeholder.
A quick appetizer of some financials: The company said that net revenue in the first nine months of 2018 came to $56.4 million, a 167% bump from the same period last year.
Now, it's true that not every IPO filing gets top billing in the Brew—no hard feelings, Glucose Biosensor Systems (Greater China) Holdings. But this isn't just any IPO filing.
It's got a buzzy product
While Beyond Meat sells a variety of plant-based products from beef to pork to poultry, its bread-and-butter is the Beyond Burger, which is made designed in a lab "to look, cook and taste like traditional ground beef." Why couldn't that have been our Chem 332 final project?
Let's talk distribution.
Retail: It's sold in large supermarket chains including Albertsons, Kroger, Wegmans, and Whole Foods.
Restaurants: You can see it on menus at Bareburger, TGI Fridays, and a few others.
It's in a buzzy industry
Consumers are increasingly shunning meat over concerns of environmental impact, health, and animal welfare. And the meat substitute industry is poised to take advantage—it's estimated to grow to nearly $6.5 billion by 2023 (up from $4.6 billion this year).
So it shouldn't surprise you that Beyond Meat is locked in a bruising battle with competitors. Not only is it duking it out with the like-minded Morningstar Farms and Impossible Foods, but there's also the traditional giants of Big Meat (the animal variety) to worry about.
Finally, it's got high-profile backers
Leonardo DiCaprio is a brand ambassador, and Beyond Meat counts Bill Gates as one of its investors. The celeb endorsements show how plant-based protein has worked its way to center stage.
And there's no brighter spotlight than the public markets.