Methodology for analyzing investments in alternative protein companies

Company inclusion and categorization criteria

To measure alternative protein funding, we conduct a global analysis of cultivated, fermentation-enabled, and plant-based meat, seafood, egg, and dairy funding deals using data from Net Zero Insights.

• Our analysis uses a custom-built list of companies focusing primarily on alternative proteins or on supplying ingredients, inputs, and equipment to those producing them.
• Our analysis excludes companies involved in alternative proteins but not as their core businesses. For example, Kerry is involved in fermentation, and Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany is involved in cultivated meat, but these companies are both excluded from their respective datasets as the funding these companies devote to alternative proteins is undisclosed. 
• Companies involved in multiple alternative protein platforms are categorized by the platform they are most involved in (e.g., plant-based, fermentation).
• Some companies use one alternative protein production platform (e.g., precision fermentation) to produce inputs for another (e.g., growth factors for cultivated meat). These companies are categorized as fermentation companies and are excluded from the cultivated meat dataset.
• Companies focused primarily on plant molecular farming are included in overall fermentation investment totals owing to similarities in the types of ingredients they produce and in the downstream processing to obtain those ingredients from the host organisms.
• Companies are occasionally approximately equally focused on multiple alternative protein production platforms. We evaluate those companies on a case-by-case basis. For example, the $200 million raised by Eat Just in March 2021 for use across their product lines and the $267 million raised for their GOOD Meat division in the funding round completed in September 2021 are categorized under cultivated meat. All other Eat Just funds raised are categorized under plant-based.

Funding categorization

We differentiate alternative protein funding according to whether a company is publicly traded or privately owned. All investments into a company after it has gone public by either completing an initial public offering (IPO) or an acquisition/merger via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) are categorized as investments in a public company. All investments into a public company before it went public and deals for companies that have never gone public are categorized as investments into a private company. 

We also separately calculate the deal size of liquidity events, including those that a company may use to go public, such as an IPO or SPAC deal. 

The deal types in Net Zero Insights comprising each funding category are provided below. Some deal types fit multiple categories and will be allocated based on the specific details of each deal (e.g., a debt deal can be a private company investment or public company investment, depending on the ownership status of the related company).

• Private company investments: Accelerator/incubator, angel, bridge, convertible note, corporate, crowdfunding, debt, debt crowdfunding, early VC, equity crowdfunding, equity round, growth equity, late VC, pre-seed, private equity, private placement, product crowdfunding, seed, series A, series B, series C, series D, series E, series F, series G, and series H.
• Public company investments: Bridge, convertible note, debt, PIPE, post IPO,  and private placement.
• Liquidity events: acquisition, IPO, merger, PIPE, and SPAC.
• Other financing: Award/prize, grant, in-kind services, spinoff/spinout, and unclassified.

Data provider

Net Zero Insights primarily tracks deals from publicly disclosed sources unless companies claim their profiles on the platform and provide their own investment information. Because our aggregate calculations include only companies with deals and deal sizes available to Net Zero Insights, they are conservative estimates.

Please note that recently published figures may differ from prior figures published by GFI as we and Net Zero Insights continually work to improve our dataset and reporting methodology. To verify your company’s data on the Net Zero Insights platform and help GFI ensure we have access to the fullest, most up-to-date information, AP-focused companies can claim their company’s profile here.