Dhe success story of Timo Recker begins somewhat paradoxically: The entrepreneur grew up in a village in Lower Saxony. His family has owned a meat business with 100 employees for more than 50 years. Recker was supposed to continue the company in the next generation, but his father turned him down.
“I didn’t identify with the company and our children won’t eat much meat in the future anyway,” he says in retrospect in an interview with “Gründerszene”. Instead, Recker founded his own company that produces soy-based meat substitutes.
With his start-up Likemeat at the end of 2013, the man from Lower Saxony was one of the first to bring vegan chicken and gyros onto the market. Recker says his father gave him a loan of one million euros, which he could use to buy a machine for production.
“Venture capital was not available at the time.” So Niedersache looked for and found other options. Over the years, other family businesses have joined the start-up, especially from the meat industry.
Tindle mimics chicken meat made from soy and wheat
With its own production and the existing structures, it was difficult to scale the company globally, says the Likemeat founder today. “You don’t change the world with 20 million sales.”
The market for chicken alone – an animal product that the start-up wants to replace – is over 150 billion euros worldwide. Of these, the 20 million euros that Likemeat recently generated are meaningless in comparison, says Recker. At the end of 2019 there were also disagreements between the shareholders. So the founder and investors decided to divest Likemeat.
For almost two years now, the brand has belonged to Livekindly, an umbrella company under which several vegan companies are based. Since then, the Swiss company has brought Likemeat to Edeka stores throughout Germany and made the products better known. Recker, however, took his exit proceeds and again founded a company that produces meat on a plant basis.
New: He went to Singapore with his second start-up Next Gen Foods. Because compared to the USA, the market for vegan substitute products in Asia has hardly any competition. The butcher’s son brought in two million euros himself, and further financing quickly followed from VCs.
35-year-old Timo Recker moved to Asia because he sees more potential there
Quelle: Tindle
In February 2021, four months after it was founded, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek got involved. The start-up not only received money, but also landed on the state agenda. In Germany, that would not be the case with an investment by a state fund, says Recker.
There was 8.5 million euros in the seed round, although Next Gen Foods had not even released a product at that time. This only followed after the investment was completed and is called Tindle. The brand imitates chicken meat made from soy and wheat.
Build Next Gen Foods more sustainably
From his many years of experience at Likemeat, the man from Lower Saxony knew how he could build Next Gen Foods bigger and more sustainably. Point one: Recker did not buy its own factories, but outsourced production. That reduces costs and makes the company more flexible, he says. For global expansion, the start-up is looking for new partners on every continent instead of building new halls.
Point Two: Unlike Likemeat, the Tindle brand only offers one product. The team focuses on chicken substitutes and builds strong marketing around it.
Point three: The company does not put its meat substitutes on supermarket shelves, but works with restaurateurs. And the most important point four: From the very beginning, Recker not only retained experienced investors, but also a top management team.
His co-founder Andre Menezes previously worked in the meat industry for seven years, dealing with substitute products, among other things. Recker took CTO John Seegers with him from his start-up Likemeat. Marketing director Jean Madden was responsible for brands at L’Oréal and Unilever for many years. Next Gen Foods poached its chief financial officer, Rohit Bhattacharya, from Temasek.
At the fund, Bhattacharya primarily looked after food start-ups. COO Alex Ward was employed by food producers in Singapore for over 20 years. “I didn’t have these opportunities and this knowledge at Likemeat before,” sums up founder Recker.
Investors would queue up at the start-up. According to the company, the 2020 seed round was already oversubscribed by almost two million euros. In the summer, Next Gen Foods expanded the financing by 18 million euros. The start-up recently raised the equivalent of 88 million euros. So that means: only a year on the market and already almost 120 million euros in the till.
Money for vegan chicken by Paul McCartney
Not only the state VC from Singapore and the Metro start-up fund are interested in the vegan chicken, but also a diverse group of celebrities: the British soccer player and international Dele Alli, for example, and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney.
The Swiss start-up Planted also sells vegan chicken, but makes the products itself. Just like the billionaire US pioneers Beyond Meat and Impossible Food, who specialize primarily in burger patties.
Many investors see an advantage in this independence. Timo Recker, on the other hand, has learned that he cannot scale like this. And evidently numerous investors also appreciate this approach.
Money continues to be invested in meat. The Recker family’s business was sold last year. His father was sad that his ancestors’ company would no longer be passed on to the next generation, but he is pleased with his son’s success, says the Likemeat founder. Now the Reckers earn their money with soy chicken instead of pork schnitzel.