Business For Good Podcast
$200 Million for Plant-Based Chicken: The LIVEKINDLY Co. Story
by Paul Shapiro
Episode 39 April 15, 2020
What do you get when you combine executives from Unilever and Nestle with alt-protein investors and $200 million? In 2020, it turns out you get a new company devoted to doing for plant-based chicken what Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have done for plant-based burgers.
Already The LIVEKINDLY Co. has announced the completion of a $200 million funding round, installed a former Unilever CEO as its own CEO, acquired two plant-based meat companies, and partnered with one of Europe’s largest poultry companies.
Discussed in this episode
LIVEKINDLY Media, the news source run by Jodi Monelle acquired by The LiveKindly Co.
LikeMeat, a German plant-based meat company acquired by The LIVEKINDLY Co.
Fry’s Family Food, a South African plant-based meat company acquired by The LIVEKINDLY Co.
PHW Group, Germany’s largest poultry company
As you’ll hear in this interview with company founder Roger Lienhard and CEO Kees Kruythoff (former CEO of Unilever North America), they intend to use their extensive food industry experience and massive capital to revolutionize the chicken industry. And it will all begin with a new, all-natural plant-based chicken that contains only four to six ingredients and, they say, will be cheaper than chicken within three years.
Blue Horizon Ventures, the VC founded by Roger Lienhard
True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership by Bill George
Perky Jerky using Improved Nature plant protein
Enactus, a global network for social entrepreneurship whose board chairman is Kees Kruythoff
Episode 38: Making Plastic Disappear with Notpla’s Seaweed Packaging