Impossible Foods Is Reported to Be Planning a $10 Billion IPO Soon

Impossible Foods is gearing up for the biggest IPO in plant-based history if it can actually pull off plans for an initial stock offering that would be worth $10 billion. The plant-based meat company is eyeing a public listing within the next year according to sources familiar with the company's intentions. Sources told Reuters that Impossible is also contemplating a potential merger with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company or SPAC.

The plant-based burger company’s potential price would be significantly higher than the current value of the company which is $4 billion. Within the last year, Impossible Burgers have experienced a surge in popularity, brought in even more investment funding, and enjoyed a number of celebrity endorsements including Jay Zee, Natalie Portman and Serena Williams.

The latest round, a Series G, propelled the company’s total investment to nearly $1.5 billion. The continued, rapidly expanding support for the California-based company has allowed for Impossible to become a leading player in the plant-based meat competition for consumer dollars. Now backed by venture capital investors Khosla Ventures and Horizons Ventures, Impossible Foods was founded in 2011 as an early entry into the meat alternative marketplace and only shifted focus from restaurants to consumer retail in 2019.

The food tech company, famous for using heme protein in its burgers to make them taste as real as beef, announced last year that it aims to produce a vegan alternative to dairy milk. The shift would be the first time the company has ventured outside of plant-based proteins. The company claims that the product is already in development and will have the taste and appearance of real cow’s milk. The new dairy-free milk will be sourced from plant proteins and used exactly like dairy milk in cereals, recipes, and coffee drinks because it will foam up the exact same way as cow’s milk.

Impossible Foods grew its retail distribution from 150 stores to more than 20,000 major supermarkets within the last year. This exponential growth coincides with the general growth of the plant-based market in the U.S. Sales of plant-based products rose 27 percent to hit $7 billion last year, according to a report from the Good Foods Institute and Plant-Based Foods Association.

This IPO will be the biggest in the plant-based sector since Beyond Meat went public in May of 2019 with a share price of $25 which valued the company at TK. As of April 9, 2021, Beyond's shares are trading $130, or more than 500 percent above its opening price. The plant-based dairy company Oatly is also eyeing a rumored $10 billion IPO, according to recent reports. With the mainstreaming of plant-based eating, these pioneer companies plan to list on the stock market, so in the case of Impossible, the question has been not if but when.