Daring Foods’ Latest Funding Round Brings Its 12-Month Total to $120M for Vegan Chicken Expansion

Bringing in $65 million in its Series C funding, vegan chicken brand Daring Foods has secured its third investment in the last 12 months, including an A-list roster of investors.

Daring Foods’ latest investment round was led by Founders Fund, as well as existing investor D1 Capital Group, and new athlete and celebrity investors including Naomi Osaka, Cameron Newton, Steve Aoki, and Chase Coleman.

The new funding brings the Culver City, Calif., based brand’s total investments to more than $120 million between this recent raise and its Series A last September, and Series B in May.

1:1 for chicken

There is no shortage of vegan chicken options on the market; both Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat launched vegan chicken nuggets this year into a market that already boasted a number of options.

But Daring says it wants to be a true “one-to-one” substitute for chicken—the most widely consumed meat in the country.

Daring is also positioning itself as a cleaner product—both to conventional chicken and to the other vegan chicken options on the market; it uses five ingredients compared to competing products that can contain as many as 40 ingredients. The product is also high in protein and lower in calories than conventional chicken.

“Eighty percent of people changing to a plant-based diet do it for health reasons,” CEO Ross Mackay told TechCrunch. “They want to be able to trust the ingredient profile, and at Daring, we can say absolutely it is healthy.”

Retail expansion

The funding comes as the brand announced placement in 3,000 Walmart locations across the U.S.. It’s currently also available at Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Kroger stores. Mackay says Wegmans and Albertsons will be rolling out the product soon.

Its recent successes have led to a 900 percent growth in the last year, and funding will go toward innovation and expanding its team to support the boom in demand. The vegan food market is expected to hit $162 billion by 2030.

“I don’t think this is a trend, but the future of food, and we are excited to lead in chicken,” Mackay said. “More brands can step into the category, and the innovation going on in the space is super exciting. Capital plowing into the industry is showing the growth trajectory, and at the end of the day, the consumers win.”

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