Gathered Foods secures $26.35m funding to dramatically expand reach of Good Catch plant-based seafood
Investors from the round include Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), Unovis Asset Management, Big Idea Ventures, and others. The recent investment follows a $36.8m Series B funding round last year, which allowed the brand to expand production and open its own plant-based production facility in Heath, Ohio.
The company also entered a distribution partnership with Bumble Bee Foods last year to broaden its retail reach.
In addition to expanded distribution and building out its product innovation pipeline, the newest round of funding will go towards growing the brand’s international footprint beginning in Europe (where it's already available in retailers in the Netherlands and Spain) with retail expansion planned for later this year. The company’s Good Catch products are currently available across the US, in the UK through a partnership with Tesco, and in Canada through partnerships with Loblaws and Sobeys.
“Partnering with proven companies who are innovators in their own right can only sharpen our ability to positively disrupt a nascent industry with our innovative portfolio of Good Catch products. As demand for plant-based seafood continues to rise, we look forward to further collaboration with LDC to create breakthrough opportunities,” said Christine Mei, CEO of Gathered Foods.
Sales of plant-based seafood rose 23% to $12m in 2020, according to SPINS data commissioned by The Good Food Institute (GFI) and the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA).
Good Catch products range from single-serve, ready-to-eat pouches of plant-based tuna to a line of frozen plant-based fish burgers, crab cakes and fish cakes available in retailers across the East Coast, with wider distribution planned.
Gathered Foods plans to leverage LDC’s international reach and operations to drastically expand the availability of its plant-based seafood products, said Gathered Foods co-founder and executive chairman Chris Kerr.
“This round of investment signifies a milestone for both Gathered Foods and the plant-based industry as a whole,” said Kerr.
“LDC’s global reach, supply chain management, R&D capabilities and procurement expertise will be key to Gathered Foods’ ability to broaden its global footprint and bring new building blocks to our expanding portfolio of offerings.”
