Impossible Foods is a plant-based meat company company making meat and dairy analogue products that are made to look and feel like animal products. They have achieved this by incorporating a heme-related molecule known as Leghemoglobin, manufactured by genetically engineered yeast, into their plant-based products. Impossible Foods is headquartered in Redwood City, CA and was founded in 2011 by Stanford neuroscientist Patrick Brown.
History
Origins and environmental impact
In 2009, Dr. Brown took a sabbatical to focus on thinking about how to improve global food sustainability, and two years later he founded Impossible Foods to begin playing a larger role in global food sustainability.
Beef production releases the most greenhouse gas; nearly 5 times that of pork. Some studies show that people are interested in reducing their meat consumption for health and environmental reasons. However, widespread acceptance has been difficult because the complex structure, texture, and taste of beef is difficult to replicate, and many consumers find soy- and veggie-based meat replacement products unpalatable.
Technology
Cognitive neuroscience
According to Impossible Foods, Inc. Director of Research Celeste Holz-Schietinger, the product was born from the question "What makes meat meat?". Simply put, the last decade of research has revealed more about how the brain responds to food cues, meaning that food is not only necessary for survival, but is a cognitive experience. Several studies have demonstrated that there is differential brain activity in response to visual, gustatory, and auditory cues of the eating (and cooking) experience. Consequently, scientists at Impossible Foods have worked to break ground beef down into all its molecular components to understand how to better replicate the cognitive experience of cooking and eating ground beef.
Their studies have led them to understand the that primary molecule that gives beef it's characteristic flavor is heme, which is the iron-carrying component of blood in animals. It's the heme and blood that gives the raw beef the red color, distinct aroma, and turns brown when the meat cooked. They found that they could extract a heme homolog (very similar chemical structure) known as leghemoglobin from the root nodule of soy plants.
To be able to sustainably mass-produce leghemoglobin without avoid having to actually harvest soy plant root nodules, scientists at Impossible Foods developed a genetically modified strain of yeast strain that contains the leghemoglobin gene and can quickly grow via fermentation. They also developed a scalable way to isolate the leghemoglobin, from the yeast with consistent and extremely high purity.
While taste, color, and aroma were one hurdle to clear in the development of a meat substitute, Impossible Foods wanted to incorporate ingredients that would satiate other cognitive responses. In their most recent iteration, they use wheat protein, which has the same fleshy texture of beef, potato protein, which gives the same crust that forms on the outer layer of seared beef, and flakes of coconut oil that melt when the burger is grilled, mimicking beef fat and giving the characteristic "sizzle" of cooking meat.
Scientists with Impossible Foods hope that generating a product that looks and feels like ground beef when raw and gives off the same sensory cues while cooking will trick the brain, thus providing an acceptable, sustainable meat substitute.
Products
The main product of Impossible Foods is the Impossible Burger, a meat analogue made from plant derived materials.
Distribution

Impossible Food's Interactive Map enables people to locate a restaurant near them that serves the Impossible Burger
Impossible Foods has begun to supply restaurants with their product at locations across the United States and Hong Kong. They began this process in early 2016, distributing their product first to high-end restaurants, then partnering with their first national chain: Fatburger. Impossible Burgers has announced that is has secured a distribution agreement with Burger King, starting with Burger Kings in St. Louis, Missouri.
Reception
There are claims that the Impossible Burger has a similar texture to actual beef, while others were impressed with the flavor and aroma. Criticism includes a review that the burger left a lingering bitter aftertaste, another review that said they could taste the coconut flavor in the burger, and a third review said if the burger is well cooked throughout, it gains a distinct wheat flavor that was unpleasant.
Timeline
$300m Series E
The round was led by Temasek Holdings and Horizon Ventures. The round pushed Impossible Foods' total raised to $750m.
Convertible Note
Total Raised: $114,000,000
Lead Investors: Sailing Capital, UBS and Temasek Holdings
Investors: Khosla Ventures, GV, Horizons Ventures, Trinity Capital Investments, Bill Gates, Viking Global Investments, Li Ka-Shing and Innovative Fund
Post-Money Valuation: $800,000,000 as of October 2015
Convertible Note
Total Raised: $75,000,000
Lead Investor: Temasek Holdings
Investors: Bill Gates, Horizons Ventures and Khosla Ventures
Debt Financing
Total Raised: $16,500,000
Investor: Trinity Capital Investment
Series D Funding
Total Raised: $108,000,000
Lead Investor: UBS
Investors: Khosla Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Bill Gates, Li Ka-Shing, Viking Global Investors and Innovative Fund
Series C Funding
Total Raised: $ 40,000,000
Investors: GV, Horizons Ventures
Series B Funding
Total Raised: $25,000,000
Investor: Bill Gates
Series A Funding
Total Raised: $9,000,000
Investor: Khosla Ventures
Funding rounds
People
Celeste Holz-Schietinger
Director of Research
Chris Gregg
Senior VP:Supply Chain & Manufacturing
David Lipman
Chief Science Officer
Kae Saechin
Employee
Marcella Butler
Chief People Officer
Patrick Brown
Founder and CEO
Tara Kriese
Senior VP:Marketing
Further reading
Evaluating Potential Risks of Food Allergy and Toxicity of Soy Leghemoglobin Expressed in Pichia pastoris. - PubMed - NCBI
Jin Y , et al.
Here's how the footprint of the plant-based Impossible Burger compares to beef
Adele Peters
Web
List of US Patents filed for Impossible Foods on Flavor and Aroma
Impossible Foods
Academic paper
Safety Evaluation of Soy Leghemoglobin Protein Preparation Derived From Pichia pastoris, Intended for Use as a Flavor Catalyst in Plant-Based Meat. - PubMed - NCBI
Fraser RZ , et al.
The meatless Impossible Burger bleeds and sears, but wasn’t a crowd pleaser
Beth Mole
US Patent for Affinity reagents for protein purification (Patent # 9,833,768 issued December 5, 2017)
Impossible Foods
Academic paper
US Patent for Expression constructs and methods of genetically engineering methylotrophic yeast (Patent # 9,938,327 issued April 10, 2018)
Impossible Foods
Academic paper
Where’s the beef? For Impossible Foods it’s in boosting burger sales and raising hundreds of millions
Jonathan Shieber
Documentaries, videos and podcasts
Companies
Impossible Food
Impossible Burger