v2food, an Australian plant-based meat startup, has secured AUD 72 million (USD 54 million) in a Series B funding round led by Astanor Ventures, with participation from a number of Asian investors including China’s Huaxing Growth Capital Fund and the Singapore-based ABC World Asia. The latest round brings total funding to AUD 185 million (USD 138 million) and the startup’s valuation to over AUD 500 million (USD 370 million).

The startup plans to use the funding to accelerate its global expansion with a focus on China. v2food has already introduced its first batch of plant-based products to the market, including its v2mince pork analog. Besides China, the startup has already entered other Asian markets such as Thailand, the Philippines, Japan, and South Korea. The participation of Astanor in the funding round could facilitate future European market expansions as well.

China, the world’s largest pork consumer, is an attractive destination for most plant-based meat producers, especially against the backdrop of recent zoonotic diseases such as Covid-19 and highly contagious African swine fever which disrupted the country's pork supply. In recent years, several foreign companies such as Harvest Gourmet (Nestle), Cargill, The Vegetarian Butcher (Unilever), LIVEKINDLY, Green Monday, and domestic companies such as Starfiled have entered the Chinese plant-based meat market.

Founded in January 2019, the startup works with Australia’s national science agency CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) to create meat analogs using plant-based ingredients. v2food currently produces and markets two products in Australia, v2mince and v2burger, both made from soy protein.