General Mills Invests in Vegan Burger Startup
Golden Valley-based food giant General Mills Inc. is pouring more money into the plant-based food market. Last week, Maryland-based vegan burger startup Everything Legendary announced that it has landed $6 million in Series A funding, and General Mills was among the investors. San Francisco-based venture capital firm CircleUp Growth Partners led the round. Billionaire and Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban also participated. Everything Legendary is a Black-owned business specializing in vegan meat substitutes.
General Mills made the investment through its venture capital arm known as 301 Inc.
“They’ve seen tremendous growth and distribution expansion in a short span of time, and we believe our expertise in taste, quality, and scale will help boost their growth even further and faster,” said General Mills spokeswoman Chelcy Walker. “We believe Everything Legendary is going to be a major player.”
CircleUp introduced Everything Legendary to General Mills. Within 10 months of its inception, Everything Legendary put its products on shelves at 1,500 grocery stores, according to the company.
General Mills’ previous plant-based investments include No Cow protein bars, Good Catch vegan seafood, and Kite Hill’s yogurt and cheese.
Everything Legendary plans to use the capital infusion to expedite national expansion. By summer, the company aims to launch its products in 5,600 groceries stores, the company said in a news release.
Within recent years, more and more food industry stalwarts have been looking to get into the plant-based protein game. Hormel Corp., for instance, has teamed up with a California startup to develop new meat substitutes. Hormel is also the “anchor” investor in a plant-based venture capital firm.
