Alternative protein startup SIMULATE, known for NUGGS and TENDERS, is introducing two new versions of its plant-based, restaurant-targeted chicken product.
STRIPS look like fried chicken, while CUTLETS look like the kind of product you’d find on restaurant menus in the popular fried chicken sandwiches.
The new products are made using a technology called high humidity extrusion, which “uses heat and pressure to freeze plant proteins and arrange them into a linear fibrous structure, which is the hallmark of animal proteins,” Ben Pasternak, SIMULATE’s founder and CEO, told TechCrunch in an email.
He added: “It’s very important for fiber products like STRIPS, and it allows for an accurate muscle-like simulation.” “High humidity extraction is the first of several technologies we’ve been developing and we’re excited to share more later this year.”
The last time we profiled SIMULATE, it raised $50 million in Series B funding in 2021, making the company $260 million. At that time, the company’s products were in more than 5,000 stores. Today this number is more than 12,000, which is an increase of more than 140% per year, Pasternak. The company now has 40 employees, a 2x year-on-year increase, and is currently hiring for its research team.
In the last five years, the demand for plant-based food has been growing. According to the Good Food Institute’s 2021 State of the Plant-Based Industry Report, “Total U.S. retail-based food sales will grow three times faster than total food sales in 2021.” Of that figure, $1.4 billion was in plant-based meat sales.
Although plant-based versions of chicken are very popular, alternative protein sales still represent the low single-digits among all meat sales. SIMULATE is one of a group of companies trying to increase their interest in consumer behavior and is working to deliver a product that tastes good and can be measured accordingly.
Indeed, the past few months have been very busy in this category. For example, Daring Foods recently introduced its first fresh–with-frozen–Plant Chicken Tenders and partnered with Cuisine Solutions to offer foodservice partners their no-bread tenders in a “sous vide” format. Currently, pea-based nuggets have appeared in Whole Foods stores in California, and Chile-based Notco has launched chicken sandwiches and nuggets at Burger King Chili’s.
Meanwhile, the new strip and cut products represent a departure from SIMULATE’s previous direct-to-consumer and retail business models, Pasternak said.
“When we first launched NUGGS, they were only available at DTC through our website,” he added. After we had a lot of success with DTC, we moved into retail, where most of our revenue comes from today. Now, we’re entering the next evolution of SIMULATE, which is primarily focused on building higher engagement in restaurants.
Along with this came some growing pains. Pasternak explained that it was challenging to break into the food service industry, which requires different distribution networks, sales processes and product development processes. “Fast-food chains operate at high volumes, so it took us a while to build the manufacturing capacity to support that,” he added.
