Leeds-based Meatless Farm offers consumers chance to invest through Crowdcube campaign

The company will initially be seeking to raise up to £5 million, by offering the opportunity to buy in to the brand from just £10.

Investments will take the form of a convertible note, which converts to shares at a discounted price during the next corporate equity funding round, expected towards the end of 2021.

Meatless Farm was launched in the UK in 2018 and now operates in more than 20 countries including the UK, US, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands, with major retail and food service partners selling fresh plant-based food including mince, burgers, sausages, hot dogs and sausage rolls for the consumer market as well as a range of products for professional chefs.

A spokesman said: “It is one of UK’s top three best known plant-based brands, alongside long-established brands like Quorn and Linda McCartney.

“Meatless Farm’s ambition is to build a sustainable global food system that supports and nurtures biodiversity and reduces the world’s dependency on intensively-farmed meat.

“It is not anti-meat or pro-vegan but instead aims to democratise plant-based food by inspiring “meat-lessers” to eat more plant-based by providing tasty, healthy, affordable ways to make more everyday meals meatless.”

The spokesman said: “The market for plant-based food is experiencing exponential growth fuelled by growing consumer appetite for alternatives amid increasing awareness of the health and environmental benefits of eating less meat: 54% of consumers say they want to reduce their meat consumption and 92% of plant-based meals in the UK are consumed by “flexitarians”.

Meatless Farm has previously restricted investment to larger investors, raising £38 million in the last three years from private and family office investors with a commitment to sustainable investing.

Morten Toft Bech, the founder of Leeds-based Meatless Farm said: “We are reaching a tipping point where replacing meat with plant-based protein a couple of times a week is no longer niche, but we know that it’s people power which will create a full-blown revolution in food culture.

“That rests on driving awareness around the importance of reducing meat for the environment and the impact that even little changes can have. For example, in a country like the UK we could reduce around 8% of the UK’s total emissions if we all ate just one less meat meal per week.

“We want to help accelerate this through the retail and food service relationships we have, the countries we operate in and the range of products we offer. Innovation is critical to the category, with taste, texture and price-parity with meat the key to unlocking the full potential of the market.”

“We are investing heavily in the entire supply chain, from farm to fork, working with farmers to get the best crops, setting up state-of-the-art plant protein facilities to produce even better ingredients and recruiting top food development chefs and nutritionists to evolve and improve our products even further and come up with exciting new plant-based options such as pizza toppings, chicken, and a new range of snacks.”

Meatless Farm was founded by Danish entrepreneur Morten Toft Bech in 2016 to help reduce the world’s dependency on intensively farmed meat.

Meatless Farm’s UK base is in Leeds and it runs its global operations from its Amsterdam headquarters, supported by offices in New York and Singapore. It employs more than 100 people in total.

Potential investors can register their interest at www.meatlessfarm.com/crowdcube from today with the investment open on www.crowdcube.com from Tuesday 22 June.