Geldrop, The Netherlands, 9/4/2024 – Rival Foods has signed the lease for its first commercially viable scale production location in the Netherlands. With production set for early this summer, Rival Foods is paving the way for scaling up distribution in food service across The Netherlands, Germany, the UK, and France, and next year also in retail. This step follows a 6 million Euro Series A round in September of 2022, along with scaling up of the company’s technology and team.
Founded in 2019 by Birgit Dekkers and Ernst Breel, Rival Foods is a FoodTech spin-off from Wageningen University & Research. Rival uses a proprietary technology called Shear Cell to create meat-like textures from plant-based proteins. Its unique production method enables the creation of whole muscle cut products from plants with a mild process.
Unlike the current Extrusion technology used by nearly all plant-based food companies, Rival Foods can create very thick, fibrous textures that mimic the sensation of eating the animal-based counterpart on all levels of the sensory spectrum, all with high nutritional value and using only a minimum amount of ingredients.
Currently, Rival Foods is selling a range of chicken-like products to select restaurants in The Netherlands and Germany, including a marinated chicken fillet, chicken blocks for skewers, and pulled chicken. The company is currently developing products in other categories like red meat and fish, and will be launching those later in the year.
With this range of products, Rival Foods is addressing a large and uncrowded part of the alternative protein market. While shelves are packed with products in the unhealthy processed category (burgers, sausages, nuggets, etc) there are currently almost no whole-cut plant-based products on the shelves. Rival Foods believes that just as in animal-based proteins, the whole cut segment will eventually make up to 50% of the plant-based meat category creating a 2billion EUR market in the coming 5 years. To get there, consumers want great-tasting, affordable, and healthy products – exactly what Rival Foods is offering their clients.
Picture of Rival Foods Production location: Willem Spigt (CCO), Birgit Dekkers (CEO, Co-founder), Ernst Breel (CTO, Co-Founder).
“One of the biggest obstacles to the success of plant-based whole cuts is achieving the right texture. With its best-in-market texturizing technology, Rival Foods is positioned to make a significant impact at the center of the plate. It’s exciting to see the team leaping towards the next milestone in scaling up.” – Martina Pace (CCO PeakBridge, Rival Foods Supervisory Board member)
“With the unveiling of our new production location, we embrace the opportunity to amplify our impact, reaching more customers with the products they love.” – Birgit Dekkers (CEO and co-founder Rival Foods).
On the 14th of September, Rival Foods announced its €6 million Serie A investment. This investment is led by PeakBridge, and joined by Roquette Ventures. PeakBridge and Roquette Ventures were chosen as strategic investors, given their deep domain expertise in Foodtech, and specifically in alternative protein technologies upscaling. Rival Foods will use this funding to develop category-winning products, expand its operational capabilities, scale-up its unique technologies and develop new formulations with next-gen protein sources. Moreover, Rival Foods expects to bring first products to market in the second half of 2023.