Tender Food Closes $11M Series A Round, Inks Fast-Food Deal for Fibre-Spun Vegan Meat

Plant-based meat company Tender Food has closed an $11M Series A funding round led by Rhapsody Venture Partners, with Lowercarbon Capital and Safar Partners returning as well. This brings the startup’s total capital raised to $23M. The funds will be used to expand production capacity, commercialize products at scale, lower manufacturing costs, and develop new meat products. Additionally, Tender has secured a deal with the vegetarian QSR chain Clover Food Lab to introduce its meat analogues in 13 restaurants.

Tender's plant-based meat is produced using fiber-spinning technology licensed from Harvard University, creating "hyperrealistic, nutritious, affordable" meat analogues. The company aims to address challenges in the plant-based meat market by offering products that taste great, resemble animal meat in structure, and are more affordable to produce. They have also received a grant for R&D into hybrid meat and appointed industry expert Mike Messersmith to their board of directors to accelerate commercialization plans.