A Swiss boutique is betting big that an estimated $25 billion industry will usurp meat at the dinner table. finews.com asked its CEO how he plans to wean us off sushi, parma ham, or chicken nuggets.
Growing up in Bavaria, Bjoern Witte was told to shower instead of bath to conserve water. Today, he says one steak less per week would do far more for the environment than his teenage hygiene habits would.
Witte (pictured below), a 47-year-old German-Swiss, runs Blue Horizon, a six-year-old $900 million investment boutique betting big on industrialized meat replacements. He and founder Roger Lienhard, both vegans, believe that by 2035, more than one-tenth of all protein consumption will be plant-based or lab-grown, from its currently estimated two percent.
They aren’t relying on ideology alone: Witte, who began his career at strategy consultancy Roland Berger, said the boutique views its role as making an impact as much as financial returns. «It's probably one of the most interesting investments fields overall, because, there's so much money driving to ESG,» Witte told finews.com, «and we are pure play ESG.»
Taste, Texture, Price
Meat and seafood are valued as status symbols – bluefin tuna or Kobe steak – as much as they are for their taste and texture. Witte hopes to appeal to a brand-savvy generation of consumers who might otherwise seek out prized cuts of meat.
Napa Grill, a steakhouse located next to Google’s biggest offices in Europe, serves a Beyond Meat burger for 33 Swiss francs ($36), alongside a U.S. rib-eye steak for 82 francs. For reference, Swiss retailer Migros sells two 113-gram Beyond burger patties for 7.50 francs.
«Big Food» Looms
McKinsey estimates consumers – from those who blow their food budgets for Wagyu beef or jamon Iberico de bellota to eaters happy with chicken nuggets and burgers – will fuel a $25 billion cultivated meat market globally by the end of this decade.
This refers to cultivating animal cells in a lab to replicate the taste, smell, and texture of real meat – without the slaughterhouse, and at a comparable price to supermarket meat. At Blue Horizon, Witte is betting that the idealism of vegan corners and tofu schnitzel is about to go mainstream.
«Ultimately, the most important thing is taste, because food has to do with emotion. If food doesn’t taste good, people don't buy it again,» said Witte. «Big food» including Nestle, which just launched a fully vegan line of meals, and Unilever, which bought U.K. brand The Vegetarian Butcher in 2018, are seeking the same scale.
Doubling Investments
The market for meat replacement – either plant-based or lab-grown – is in its infancy, with few stocks available. Blue Horizon is a venture capital investor in technologies, and in 2019 incorporated Live Kindly, a platform of five plant-based food start-ups which raised $535 million.
In parallel, Blue Horizon wants to by the end of next year double the capital it has raised, from just north of $850 million currently. To do so, he wants to widen its investor base from family offices and wealthy individuals to more institutional investors as well.
