Bond Pet Foods, known for making plant-based pet foods, is shifting its focus from treats to pet food applications by creating “nature-identical” chicken, beef, fish and other meat proteins using precision fermentation. Last November, Bond began this by announcing a partnership with Hill’s Pet Nutrition to develop meat proteins for its product portfolio.
With the new focus, the Boulder, Colorado-based company joins a growing list of incumbents focused on healthy options for our four-legged friends, including Freshpet, which launched Spring & Spring vegetarian dog food last September. Maev, developing human-grade raw dog food; Alpha Paw in a complementary position; and Jinx, which specializes in clean-label dog food.
The move was purchased in June with a $17.5 million Series A investment from a group of investors including Archer-Daniel-Midland Company’s venture arm ADM Ventures, Cavallo Ventures, Genoa Ventures, Lever VC, Thia Ventures, iSelect Fund, Stage 1 Fund, Life VC and Satori Capital. . Joining as individual investors are musicians Sia Isabelle Furler and Joan Jett. Prior to the Series A round, the company raised $2.5 million to bring its total funding since 2017 to $20 million.
Bond Pet Foods, co-founded by Rich Keleman and Pernilla Audibert, is part of the global pet food market, which is estimated to be worth $110 billion in 2021 and will grow 5% this decade to $164 billion by 2029.
The new investment will allow the company to expand its meat protein portfolio and increase production in a new 15,000-square-foot facility in Boulder, as well as triple the size of the team, Kelman told TechCrunch.
At first, the company intended to make its own brand of pet food, but it decided to turn to meat proteins for other companies in the interest of some big pet food names, including Hill’s.
“All these global players knocked on our door, and instead of doing it on our own, we realized that if we partnered with established companies, we could build a healthy business and have a big material impact,” he said. “We’re really accelerating our process development to lower the cost of goods and do some quick work on our stress engineering.”
The facility is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2023, and Kelman expects the first meat proteins to be ready for commercial use within two years. That time will include pilot feeding programs to collect data on performance, safety and effectiveness as Bond works through the regulatory process.
Kelman Bond is close to getting the final specifications for the chicken protein in the next few months. It will go through the regulatory process and, in collaboration with strategic pet food partners, early next year, possibly feeding trials in dogs and cats.
