Planted Foods wins the top prize at the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award 2021

Planted Foods cooks up the recipe for success: The Zurich-based startup ranks first at the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award 2021! Planted revolutionizes the food industry by creating plant-based protein made of 100% animal-product-free ingredients. The startup’s vegan meat alternatives do not include additives, chemicals, GMOs, antibiotics, or hormones. Planted was founded in 2019 by Christoph Jenny, Eric Stirnemann, Lukas Böni, and Pascal Bieri, and it ranked 37th in 2020.

Zurich startup Planted is redefining the term “meat” and using protein and fiber from yellow peas, along with rapeseed oil and water, to create “Planted Chicken,” a meatless chicken. What is unique about Planted Chicken: It is made with only four ingredients, and it looks like chicken, tastes like chicken, and is much more ecological than its animal counterpart—with 50% less land and water consumption and two-thirds fewer CO2 emissions.

“Meat is about protein, structure, mouthfeel, and the cultural aspect of food—and not about the animal,” said co-founder Pascal Bieri. “We produce the structure of the meat, the nutritional value, and the value from plants, thus, completely avoiding the disadvantages of animal meat production: animal suffering, environmental pollution, and health risks, such as antibiotic-resistant germs.”

Planted’s meat substitute is targeted mainly at the “flexitarian”; that is, the group of consumers who have not completely renounced meat but are consciously reducing their consumption. According to a report by the Federal Office for Agriculture, every fifth person in Switzerland belongs to this group.

Although the market for meat substitute products in Switzerland is still small, it is growing steadily. In 2016, sales amounted to CHF 60 million; last year, almost CHF 120 million. Various studies predict continued growth over the next five to 20 years, and there is definitely room for improvement: The Swiss meat industry has annual sales of about CHF 5.4 billion. This is the potential that entrepreneur and investor Stephan Schmidheiny saw, and tasted, at Planted. During the development phase, he turned up in the laboratory of the ETH spin-off, tasted “Planted Chicken” in the meeting room with the young entrepreneurs, and is now on board as an investor.

Since then, other investors have joined, most recently the Swiss national football team goalkeeper Yann Sommer and, after the TOP 100 Investor Summit 2020, Vorwerk Ventures. In its Series A financing round in spring 2021, the startup raised a total of CHF 17 million and is, thus, well-financed for the next growth steps.

Founded in 2019, Planted is growing rapidly. In addition to “chicken,” “pork” has been added, and it is now sold in retailers Coop and Migros in Switzerland, EDEKA in Germany, and Spar in Austria. In the early summer of 2021, Planted launched its products in France, soon to be followed by the UK, making it the largest market for meat substitutes in Europe with about EUR 500 million in sales.

Planted currently produces about 500 kg of “chicken” and “pork” per hour, with 80 full-time positions in the former Maggi factory in Kemptthal. As soon as separate production lines for both products are available, the quantity should be increased. A factory outside Switzerland is being planned, in order to be able to supply the European market more easily and to overcome tariff disadvantages. Although feed can be imported into Switzerland duty-free, Planted has to declare the protein and fiber from the yellow peas for its meat substitute production. The Planted products are sold abroad exclusively under the in-house brand: “There will be no production for third parties until further notice,” commented Bieri. 

For the 35-year-old Pascal Bieri (middle) from Lucerne and his co-founders—business economist Christoph Jenny (right) and the two food scientists Lukas Böni (left) and Eric Stirnemann (not pictured)—sustainability is more than a word. It is the guiding principle for countless business decisions: Every degree of waste heat in the factory is recovered, flights are made only in exceptional cases, and only electric cars are used. “When a restaurant replaces a chicken menu with Planted, it has a positive impact. That’s what drives us forward,” said Bieri.


This article by Jost Dubacher was first published in the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Magazine 2021.