Armored Fresh, a food tech company, announced on May 27th that they have closed a 28 billion won (~$23M) in pre-series B investment round.
KDB Development Bank, Hanwha Investment & Securities, Daesung Startup Investment, and Sejong Venture Partners renewed their commitment by adding on their series A investments. Additionally, Armored Fresh added – Collaborative fund, Open Water Investment, Lotte Ventures, D3 Jubilee Partners, NH Venture Investment, Korea Investment & Securities and Aju IB Investment, under the leadership of UTC Investment and Hana Financial Investment participated in this round.
This strong stable of investors have in their portfolio global food tech companies such as Impossible Foods, Sweetgreen, Blue Bottle Coffee, known as the 'Apple of the coffee world', and Beyond Meat, a company who IPO’d on Nasdaq in 2019.
“When we invest in food companies, our number 1 requirement is taste. Especially in this crowded plant based dairy market if the taste is not exceptional, we would not pursue the investment.” Said Brain Chang, a principal at Collaborative Fund. “Armored Fresh’s vegan cheese passed our taste test and we are excited to be part of their growth story.”
Armored Fresh debuted its plant-based cheese in January at the Consumer Electronics Show 2022 where it was received with overwhelming positive response. The company has several ambitious goals including competing with animal milk based cheese in terms of taste, and exceeding it in terms of nutritional content. The research and development team and its manufacturing is based in S. Korea. The Korea team has had significant successes recently getting their cheese in the Korean market. A small but growing team in the US is working to bring the cheese to the US market and is expected to hit the stores’ shelves in late 3rd quarter.
Andrew Yu, CEO of Armored Fresh USA, said, “investors believed in the growth potential of Armored Fresh. They were convinced we could be a leader in the market. Their confidence and enthusiasm is reflected in the amount we were able to raise. The funds received in this round will help to penetrate the US market and to accelerate our growth to become a world class food tech innovator.”