Bill Gates Helps Impossible Foods Raise $75 Million

This week, food technology company Impossible Foods closed a $75 million investment round led by Singapore-based investment firm Temasek. The newest funding round also included Bill Gates, marking the third time that the billionaire invested in Impossible Foods. The company’s debut product, the Impossible Burger, relies on a plant-based molecule called “heme” that CEO and biochemistry professor Pat Brown said “makes meat taste like meat.” Last month, Impossible Foods received a patent for its proprietary ingredient and has 100 additional patents pending. “It turns out that finding a sustainable way to make massive amounts of heme from plants is a critical step in solving the world’s greatest environmental threat,” Brown said. Currently, the company is constructing a new production facility in Oakland, CA that will enable it to produce 1 million pounds of burgers per month to help meet its goal of getting on 1,000 restaurant menus before the end of the year. Gates is also an investor in competitor plant-based meat company Beyond Foods, which is in the midst of its own rapid expansion of its vegan Beyond Burger across 600 Kroger stores nationwide.