The NewTree impact investment fund is taking part in the latest fundraising campaign of Heura, a Spanish scale-up whose “vegetable meats” are a hit.

For its 13ᵉ investment since it became a fund in 2021, NewTree Impact has set its sights on a Spanish scale-up on the rise, Heura. It designs, develops and markets alternatives to herbal meat. With a nice success at the end since in the space of 6 years, it took 25% of the market share of the category in Spain and has already spread to 19 other markets.

And the icing on the cake for NewTree Impact communicators, it “posted” its first products recently in Belgium, in the shelves of the supermarket chain Colruyt. The story now has a Belgian chapter too.

“Heura has become a market leader in Spain, where it has surpassed the major players in the sector in its category.”  

Benoît De Bruyn, CEO

Heura achieved a turnover of 32 million euros last year, up 80% over 2021. It employs some 1 fi0 people, has developed a range of fifteen products with alternatives that we are assured bluffants to pork, beef, chicken and even fish meat. It is present in 20 markets in Europe and 22.fi00 outlets. And it intends to continue its expansion on the Old Continent where this segment of the food market is currently valued at 4 billion euros in annual sales. At the current rate of growth, it should reach 7.5 billion within five years.

Break the rules.

“Heura has become a market leader in Spain, where it has surpassed the major players in the sector in its category,” says Benoît de Bruyn, CEO of NewTree Impact. The company has a repeat purchase rate of over 50%, which is huge. It is pulling the category in the country and intends to do so in Europe. Its leaders have managed to break all codes of success. Its strengths are taste, price and health.”

Among other achievements, Heura manages to limit the number of ingredients per dish proposed to less than ten and does not include any additives. All of its products have the highest nutritional score (A), which is highly appreciated by the managers of the Belgian impact investment fund. As a scientist, I really like this beautiful nutritional density,’ admits Benoît de Bruyn, an engineer in biochemistry and environmental sciences.

In concrete terms, Heura has just completed a two-part fundraising campaign. It raised 3.4 million euros via the crowdfunding platform CrowdCube, a record amount in its sector on this platform. This was complemented by an injection of 1.5 million signed NewTree Impact, or nearly €1 million in total.

“343,000 animals saved in one quarter.”

Since its inception, Heura has already attracted some 3.5 million euros. And it is not yet satisfied, since it is preparing a B-Series lift that should take place at the end of this year or early 2024, always with the aim of financing its international expansion. “Newtree Impact shares the same mission with Heura, that of tirelessly building a new food ecosystem to protect our planet,” stresses the Belgian fund owner. In short, replacing animal proteins with vegetable proteins in our diet means using less water, less agricultural space, less energy and emitting fewer greenhouse gases.

For example, Heura’s products emit an average of 2.6 kilograms of CO2 per kilogram of food, compared with 20 to 46 kilograms (depending on the region) per kilogram of beef. With its products, in the first quarter of 2023, Heura estimated saving 3.9 billion litres of water and 343,000 animals.

Published in L’Echo on 25 May 2023

Michel Lauwers