The Week In Plant-Based: Oddlygood Bags $28M, Beyond Meat Hires A New Manager, McPlant Gets Wall Street Speculating

The vegan news never stops! Each week, the Green Queen team dives into the latest developments for plant-based foods around the world so you can catch up on what’s happening across the industry, from new products to special collabs and more. This week, a Finnish plant-based meat-maker closes its first-ever funding round, Beyond Meat gets a new manager, and McDonald’s updates us on the latest developments for its McPlant burger.

Finland: Oddlygood Global bags $28 million 

Oddlygood Global, a spinoff of Finnish food company Valio, has closed its first funding round for its line of plant-based products including oat drinks, yogurt, cheese, and other dairy alternatives. The private equity division of Helsinki-based Mandatum Asset Management funded the round. 

Oddlygood will use the funds to become a leader in plant-based foods, the company says. US sales are slated to begin in early 2022. America joins Finland, Sweden, the UK, Russia, and the Baltic countries as markets in which Oddlygood products can be found. 

US: Abbot’s Butcher gets Whole30 Approved certification for plant-based meats

The plant-based brand born in Venice, California, and backed by the likes of Woody Harrelson and Owen Wilson, recently announced it has received the Whole30 Approved certification for its plant-based chorizo and beef products.

Abbot’s Butcher sells its products via a number of brick-and-mortar retailers around the US as well as through online partners Hungryroot, Good Eggs, GTFO, and Amazon. In addition to beef and chorizo analogues, the company also has a “chicken” product, though the latter hasn’t yet gotten Whole30 certification. 

Notably, Abbot’s Butcher is the first plant-based brand to partner with Whole30.

Beyond Meat gets a new general manager to lead European growth

Food industry vet Jorg Oostdam joins the plant-based meat company in a newly created leadership position of General Manager, Europe. Oostdam has over two decades of experience in the food and retail sector, including 15 years at Mars, Inc.

Oostdam’s addition to the Beyond Meat team will help the company with its European growth strategy, including building out local production and innovation capabilities, growing a supply chain, and reaching price parity with animal protein.

US: McPlant may be coming to a McDonald’s near you soon

Wall Street analysts are speculating that a more widespread US launch of McDonald’s McPlant burger might be happening sooner rather than later.

Mickey D’s released the plant-based burger, made in partnership with Beyond Meat, earlier this year to a select number of US markets. The response has reportedly been going well, with all eight test locations hitting sales targets of 70 burgers per day.