Impossible Burger maker CEO says no near-term IPO plans
Impossible Foods will not likely go public in the near future despite the company's rapid growth.
CEO Patrick Brown, speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2019 conference this week, said the plant-based, meat-replacement maker has big goals that will require many resources, but there are no near-term plans for an IPO.
“We’ll have to get those resources either from investors or from getting our profit margins to the point where we can scale at that velocity that we want to scale with the profit we make from our business,” Brown said, as reported by TechCrunch. “It’ll be a while before we’re at that point. So we’ll definitely have to raise more money, I would say we are not looking in the near-term future toward an IPO.”
Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown said the company has no near-term plans for an IPO. (Credit: Impossible Foods)
The company's Impossible Burgers are sold in more than 17,000 restaurants across the United States and the company started selling the burgers in grocery stores last month.
Impossible Foods said in May that it had raised $300 million in a Series-E round, bringing its total funding to more than $750 million. That most recent funding round included celebrity investors like Jay-Z, Katy Perry, Serena Williams, Kirk Cousins and Jaden Smith, according to the company.
Plant-based protein is hot right now. Beyond Meat raised about $240 million in its IPO in May, and its stock is still trading for more than double its debut listing price. And Impossible Foods has received a lot of attention this year, thanks in part to partnerships with restaurant chains like White Castle and Burger King.
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 8: In this photo illustration, the new Impossible Whopper sits on a table at a Burger King restaurant on August 8, 2019 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. On Thursday, Burger King is launching its soy-based Impossible Who
But going public would bring a lot of complications, Brown said at the conference.
“We have our hands full, growing our business, doing our core job,” he said. “And we have great investors, and we have a lot of private investors who are willing to bet on us and so forth … So at this point, it’s not something that we need, and we can just take our time about it, basically.”
So what is next for Impossible Foods? While it has focused on beef replacements so far, it’s been working on faux steaks and fried chicken. Brown said he plans to double the size of the company’s research and development team, TechCrunch reported.
“We want to have the know-how and the technology platform to be able to make this entire gamut of products,” Brown said.