Canada’s The Very Good Food Company Goes Public In The U.S., Marking 2nd Plant-Based IPO

The Very Good Food Company, the parent group of Canadian plant-based meat brand The Very Good Butchers, has been approved for trading in the U.S. after its first IPO on the Canadian Stock Exchange (CSE) earlier in June this year. It will be listed on the OTCQB Market, a venture market designed for early-stage companies, and marks the company’s upgrade to make its shares more accessible to American investors. 

On October 14, The Very Good Food Company began trading on the OTCQB Market under the ticker symbol “VRYYF”. OTCQB is a venture market operated by New York-based OTC Markets Group, which is designed for early-stage and developing U.S. and international companies.

“We have seen increased trading volume among US investors as our brand has become more internationally recognised,” said CEO Mitchell Scott in a statement.

“With an upgrade to the OTCQB, we expect our shares to become more widely accessible to a range of American investors, and we hope to continue building momentum and increasing our shareholder base internationally.”

It comes months after the Canadian plant-based meat brand went public on the CSE under “VERY”, becoming the second plant-based company in the world to launch an IPO after food tech giant’s Beyond Meat landed the milestone in 2019. The Very Good Food Company is also traded on the German market, listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FRA) under the symbol “0SI”. 

With an upgrade to the OTCQB, we expect our shares to become more widely accessible to a range of American investors, and we hope to continue building momentum and increasing our shareholder base internationally.

Mitchell Scott, CEO of The Very Good Food Company

Founded by James Davison and Tania Friesen in 2016, The Very Good Butchers opened its first permanent storefront in Victoria Public Market a year later, making them the first vegan butcher shop to launch in western Canada selling dishes made with its house-made plant-based meats such as pepperoni, burgers and sausages. It has since grown to offer a subscription vegan butcher box to customers, and is also selling its vegan meat products at retailers across Canada. 

A growing number of plant-based companies are now going public. Shortly after The Very Good Food Company landed on the CSE, it was quickly followed by Modern Meat’s listing on the CSE under “MEAT” in July, becoming the third plant-based publicly traded company. 

This month, Natural Order Acquisition Corp. went public on the U.S. Nasdaq stock market under ticker “NOACU”, raising an impressive US$230 million, just shy of Beyond Meat’s record-breaking US$240 million IPO. Natural Order is a blank check company formed this year for the purpose of acquiring one or more businesses that are focused on technologies and products in the plant-based F&B and alternative protein segments.

Eat Just, the company behind the famous plant-based JUST Egg, has also hinted at launching an IPO once it reaches profitability, a target that the firm aims to reach by the end of 2021. In an interview, the Eat Just’s co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick revealed that “eventually going public made the most sense,” and added that this goal has never been “clearer”. 

All images courtesy of The Very Good Food Company.