Houlihan Lokey Advises Planted

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Planted, the Swiss food tech startup, famous for its clean-label biostructured meat, has completed a series B financing of CHF 70 million, led by L Catterton.

Founded in July 2019, Planted, the ETH Zurich spinoff, produces delicious meat from alternative proteins such as peas, oats, or sunflowers through its novel biostructuring approach, focusing on the perfect bite with clean-label ingredients. Products are available at restaurants and retailers across Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, and, most recently, the UK as well as in its own Europe-wide webshop. The company is getting ready to enter several new European markets in 2023. Planted produces all its products under a glass-house production facility in Kemptthal, Switzerland—the first transparent meat production open to the public. In May 2022, the company announced that production capacity was doubled to more than one ton of plant-based meat per hour. In the near future, Planted is planning to open an additional production facility.

L Catterton is a leading global consumer growth investor. Leveraging deep category insight, operational excellence, and a broad strategic network of relationships, L Catterton’s team of nearly 200 investment and operating professionals supports management teams around the world in building strong, category-leading brands. Since 1989, L Catterton has made more than 250 investments in consumer businesses.

Planted will use the funds to launch its new whole-cut line of products, such as its chicken breast, expand further internationally, and increase its production capacity.

Houlihan Lokey acted as exclusive financial advisor to Planted, advising the company on all aspects of the transaction.

This transaction underscores Houlihan Lokey’s expertise in the exciting plant-based food sector, following the recent sale of Gosh! to Sonae and Vivera to JBS. Moreover, this deal further strengthens Houlihan Lokey’s market-leading position advising fast-growing consumer companies.