Movement at a maturing v2food

In 2019, CSIRO, Main Sequence, and Competitive Foods Australia (CFAL) launched a plant-based meat company called v2food. With the backing of the national science agency and CFAL CEO (and founder of Hungry Jack’s) Jack Cowin, the market disrupter took off at lightning speed, starting with a v2whopper burger. 

Former research director for Mars and PepsiCo Nick Hazell was v2food’s founder and CEO, and within months it had raised $35 million.

It made its supermarket debut in August 2020 with its v2mince and v2burgers in Drakes Supermarkets and quickly moved into the major retailers.

Two years after its launch, v2food launched into the Chinese market after a $72 million Series B Plus funding round.

It meant in the 2.5 years since it had launched, v2food had raised $185 million and been valued at $500 million, up from its launch value of $2 million.

Then last week, Hazell announced his resignation.

“The last 4 years, founding and leading v2food, have been some of the most worthwhile and exciting years of my life,” Hazell said. 

Main Sequence partner and chair of v2food, Phil Morle, has been part of the company since the beginning. He told Food & Drink Business that Hazell’s departure represented the transition of the company, from a start-up to a growing large food company.

“Nick oversaw the company and the Australian plant-based meat market develop very quickly, and to v2food dominating the domestic market. He led great opportunities into overseas markets, now established in Asia and more launches later in the year,” Morle said.

Hazell said on his LinkedIn profile, “I want to thank directors and investors, research partners CSIRO, UTS and many others who I partnered with and who share our audacious mission to feed the planet sustainably.

“And most of all I want to thank the amazing team I led at v2food who I know will continue to do everything they can to grow an amazing Australian company that can feed the world's insatiable hunger for meat but make it sustainably from plants.

“It is now time to step down as CEO: V2 is in good hands.”

Morle said, “It was a well discussed issue between Nick and the company that his extremely powerful skill is in starting companies, gathering people around the concept, and committing to a mission. He is most happy fire-starting new ideas.”

Tim York has been appointed CEO. He has been COO since July 2021, joining the company after a short stint at food equipment business J.L. Lennard, and before that Darrell Lea, including being CEO from 2014-2020.

Morle said the transition between Hazell and York was a straightforward one, and York’s “terrific” experience growing large companies was what was now needed for the company.

“We are launching into the UK later this year, and our priority is to grow into a large food company, and that is Tim’s expertise,” Morle said.

Wodonga plans shelved

In the very early days of v2food (December 2019), the business invested around $20 million in a 55,470 square metre building in Wodonga, Victoria.

The goal was for the site form part of v2food’s supply chain and will allow local farmers to supply to the plant-based industry with Australian-grown ingredients, starting with one line and eventually running four or five.

Morle told Food & Drink Business they had stepped into the Wodonga project with the intention of playing a significant role in the supply of Australian grown and processed plant-based ingredients.

(Think along the lines of Harvest B, Australian Plant Proteins, and Wide Open Agriculture.)

“What we found out pretty quickly was that it was extremely difficult and that we couldn’t do it on our own. We have had to contain that goal for the time being because our priority is to grow a large food company,” he said.

Morle added that since v2food was founded and the Wodonga site was purchased, the plant-based food ecosystem has developed greatly, and there are now more companies doing what v2food was attempting (see above).

“There are companies using interesting technology and researching different protein sources. The mothership of soy still needs to be imported and we know that not only does domestic production need to increase for soy, it has to for other sources as well.

“We are seeing companies working with different proteins to what v2food uses, moving beyond soy and doing a lot of R&D into other sources. It is a good reflection on the industry as a whole,” Morle said.

Plant-based meat think tank Food Frontier told Food & Drink Business there are about 30 plant-based meat companies in Australia and New Zealand, and eight cellular ag companies. ANZ brands account for more than 60 per cent of the 320+ plant-based meat products on our shelves.

Listen to our podcast episode with Nick Hazell and Phil Morle from April 2021 here.

And our episode with Phil Morle on synthetic biology here.