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In the Middle East, where consumers are particularly picky about lamb, Black Sheep Foods and its plant-based meat get high marks
San Francisco-based food tech startup Black Sheep Foods is redefining the term “alternative meat” by using plants to create delicious meat flavors beyond what’s usually expected.
First up is lamb made from plants. The company raised $12.3 million (AED45.18 million) in a Series A funding round led by plant-based venture capital veteran Unovis (an early investor in Oatly and Beyond Meat), as well as Bessemer Ventures Partners, AgFunder and KBW Ventures, with total Investments amounted to US$18.05 million (AED66.3 million) since the company’s inception in 2019.
The round helps accelerate Black Sheep Foods’ journey to give consumers flavor freedom in the meat section and scale up the production of its debut plant-based lamb for national distribution.
In the Middle East, consumers are particularly picky about lamb, a meat featured in many ethnic cuisines, and Black Sheep Foods is also highly rated.
Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed, a preeminent greentech investor in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, founder of KBW Ventures and early investor in alternative proteins, participated in the round after tasting lamb at Black Sheep Foods.
Prince Khalid bin Alwaleed confirms his harrij times In an exclusive interview. The latest capital allocation, based on his green technology portfolio, is a Series A funding round for Black Sheep Foods through Prince’s investment firm, KBW Ventures.
It is the latest in a string of green tech companies to receive the Prince’s backing. He also has an agtech investment in the US that recently launched a new facility, again making him the only greentech venture-backed start-up outside the MENA region to gain a foothold. Regional venture capitalists.
Prior to Black Sheep Foods, KBW Ventures participated in the US$40 million (AED146.92 million) Series B funding round of Eclipse Foods, another foodtech company working on the future of food. The Saudi prince, the son of prominent billionaire philanthropist Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has invested in companies including Apple, Twitter, Snap, Lyft and more.
The prince explained his reasons for investing.
“I have several reasons – building a team is the most important. They are passionate about making a positive mark on the food system and providing us with healthy alternative proteins that taste great.
“The nutritional profile of the product is impressive, and Black Sheep Foods is doing what most Silicon Valley food tech companies aren’t: They’re looking outside of North America for foods that the rest of the world eats a few times a week. Traditional meat is really a This is an underserved market for alternative protein innovation, and there is a large pipeline of flavor profiles to explore.”
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Black Sheep Foods promises to disrupt the industry.
“I’m always hesitant to say that any company is ‘disrupting’; it’s more about improving the situation or building better alternatives that give people more choice while mitigating many of the downsides of your favorite meal.
“I think food 2.0 has a lot of alternative protein options – that taste great, are better for the environment and don’t involve using our rapidly dwindling resources. We need to feed billions of people and alternative protein food companies like Black Sheep Foods are doing it for We provide a shortcut to food security.”
UAE Food Tech Challenge
The prince is also a judge of the UAE Food Tech Challenge and gave a detailed account of this exciting competition.
“I was a finalist judge along with some future builders in the UAE; I am delighted to be part of and support this initiative by UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri and Tamkeen. The challenge is to find solutions to food production or food loss and waste problematic food tech and agritech innovators.”
Drawing 667 entries from 79 countries, the competition seeks to identify the next wave of technological innovations that are on the cusp of transforming food and traditional farming practices efficiently and sustainably.
“Startups should be at a fairly early stage and be relevant to the UAE business environment with meaningful application in the country. We have a very strong shortlist of finalists and I look forward to hearing the final pitches during Abu Dhabi May Sustainability Week.”
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As a technology investor, Prince seems to have his finger on the pulse of these big changes.
“I’ve always been interested in technology, building my own computers, messing around with devices and things like that. But the intersection of technology and investing really stems in large part from the earliest days with my dad seeing the most relevant companies in the world .
I was lucky enough to see a lot of the early entrepreneurial days, and I think that played a big part in my interest in fusing passions: hence venture capital (VC).
Regarding these market shifts and deal flows, it does look like investors are prescient, but I think the reality is that we get access to really novel and exciting ideas because venture capital is rocket fuel for moonshots,” he said.
Prince talked about his recent investments in technology.
“Recently I participated in the financing of a fintech company with several elements: BNPL, microlending, etc., serving the Mexican market. I also invested in a US-based business-to-business (B2B) software-as-a-service ( SaaS) startup that allows small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to use artificial intelligence (AI) for logistics replenishment.”
“One of my favorite recent investments is Overtime, the most inclusive digital sports broadcaster; broadcasting rights are in everyone’s hands,” he added.
unboxing 1
Who: Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed, MENA’s leading greentech investor, founder of KBW Ventures, and early investor in alt-proteins
Profile: Food tech startup Black Sheep Foods
Time: 2019
Location: San Francisco, USA
Pull quotes:
The product’s nutritional profile is impressive, and Black Sheep Foods is doing what most Silicon Valley food tech companies aren’t: They’re looking outside of North America for foods that the rest of the world eats a few times a week – Khalid Ben Prince Alwaleed
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