Plant based foods are now prominent on food stores’ shelves and innovative food tech startups are a big part of this emerging food category that has the support of both investors and Hollywood celebrities. Better Brand, founded by Wharton graduate Aimee Yang, is one of those celebrity eye catching startups contributing to current wellness and diet trends.
The excitement surrounding the potential of these consumer food tech startups is on solid ground, according to SPINS retail sales data released last March. Grocery sales of plant-based foods used to directly replace animal products have increased 29% over the past two years to $5 billion. Another marker of this nascent growing plant food industry segment is the inaugural Vegan Women Summit that was held this past December to recognize women entrepreneurs who are creating startups based on plant food products.
Founder Yang took the bold move to pursue her vision for healthy eating and to join a growing number of US-based competitors such as BeyondMeat as well as a number of global plant-based food tech startups to challenge the status quo of the food industry by encouraging healthier food purchases and diets.
“I, along with the vast majority of people, have felt the anxiety, stress, and deprivation associated with diet in very real and impactful ways,” said Yang. “Our goal is to create a world where consumers have the ability to eat freely without restriction or worry, replacing guilt and deprivation with freedom and empowerment, while improving human health on a macro level.”
Better Brand has gained the backing of some very notable investors and Hollywood celebrities. Verso Capital is a big player in disruptive food tech and known for funding unicorns like Eat Just and Impossible Foods.
Celebrities such as actress and singer-songwriter Emmy Rossum as well as the heir to Wendy’s, Sean Thomas are backing the LA-based startup. Funds will be used to invest heavily into R&D, working on innovations that make eat easier for consumers to find and enjoy more healthy food.
“This is an entire movement towards ‘Better’ in every sense of the word — it’s something the world is craving (no pun intended…), and we are certainly excited for it,” said Yang.
