Dutch food-tech scale-up Rival Foods has raised €10 million in a Series B funding round led by pension investor APG on behalf of ABP. PYMWYMIC and ROM Utrecht Region also participated, while existing shareholder PeakBridge provided follow-on investment.
Rival Foods has developed a proprietary platform to produce whole-cut, clean-label plant-based meat alternatives that are free of additives. The company will use the new funding to double production capacity at its facility in Geldrop and further scale its proprietary manufacturing technology. This will enable the optimization of production costs, which could help the products become cost-competitive with animal meat.
Rival will also use the capital to grow its team and expand internationally, forming partnerships with major players in foodservice and retail.
“This investment marks a major milestone in our mission to make high-quality plant-based meat mainstream,” said Birgit Dekkers, CEO and founder of Rival Foods. “With the backing of world-class investors, we’re ready to scale fast and reshape the future of protein. We’re called Rival for a reason — we’re here to be one.”
Opportunity for growth
Rival Foods was founded in 2019 as a spin-off from Wageningen University & Research. The company takes a B2B-first approach, working with chefs, retailers, and food brands across Europe to develop next-generation plant-based dishes.
Rival Foods previously raised €6 million in Series A funding in 2022. The company currently offers several whole-cut chicken and beef products, each made with fewer than seven clean-label ingredients and containing over 25g of protein per 100g. More products are said to be under development.
“We believe that the plant-based meat category as a whole can only grow if we provide the end consumers with high-quality, nutritious, and clean-label products that are price-competitive with animal-derived proteins,” Willem Spigt, CCO of Rival Foods, told vegconomist in an interview last year. “We believe the whole cut segment will see a similar evolution as the processed plant-based meat segment (burgers, nuggets etc) and provide a lot of, or even more opportunity for growth.”
