Not only artificial meat, but also vegetarian food is actively seizing the market.
According to foreign media reports, the US vegetarian food brand “HODO” has recently completed Series B financing. The investor is Renewal Funds, and the funds will be used to expand production capacity.
HODO mainly produces vegetarian ready-to-eat foods with global tastes, such as Korean vegetarian burgers, Thai curry, Sichuan tofu, Moroccan tofu, etc. At present, HODO has entered more than 6,000 offline retail locations in North America , including Whole Foods, Target, Publix, Wal-Mart and other leading supermarket brands. Especially Publix, which entered more than 1,200 Publix supermarkets in early 2020.
HODO was established in 2006 and was previously inactive in the capital market. According to Crunchbase information , only received angel round investment from Launch Capital in 2008. HODO introduced on the official website: Although our products have rich and complex flavors, HODO hopes that after opening the package, you can enjoy a meal in just a few minutes.
Chao Mingcai, the founder of HODO, grew up in Vietnam, has a master’s degree in Colombia, and has many years of work experience as an investment bank and management consultant. The establishment of HODO is to bring oriental tofu, yuba and other plant protein foods to the North American market.
In the product list of HODO, “tofu” accounts for a very large proportion, including Sichuan tofu, tofu burger, organic tofu, Moroccan tofu pieces and so on. Compared with other vegetarian food companies’ emphasis on “vegetarian meat”, that is, using plant ingredients to imitate the taste of meat products, HODO emphasizes whether the product itself is delicious, and innovative cooking techniques make people fall in love with “tofu” itself.
Considering the domestic market, the consumption of soy products is very popular. China Business Industry Research InstituteThe data shows In 2018, the sales revenue of the soybean product industry is expected to be 89 billion yuan, and the growth rate in the next five years will remain at about 6%. However, the company is relatively aging and lacks high-quality brands, especially in the vegetable market and commercial supermarkets. Many tofu stalls are still in the mode of small husband and wife workshops, with unsanitary production processes and serious food safety problems. This shows that there is also an opportunity for upgrading in the domestic soybean product industry. In this direction, we have introduced Chain soy product brand “Mo Tease” .
From the perspective of the overall plant protein market, the growth of vegetable protein beverage tracks is quite strong. According to AC Nielsen data, plant milk has captured 15% of the US retail market for dairy products in 2018, and is still growing at a rate of 50% per year. Surge.
The vegetable protein food track has been closely watched by capital for its “artificial meat” concept. The artificial meat companies represented by Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods hope to use food technology to transform vegetarian meat to make it as close to real meat as possible in taste and taste. At the same time, manufacturers like HODO don’t just emphasize imitation meat, but manufacturers that focus on making vegetarian food better, such as Alpha Foods .