Fable Food raises $8.5m Series A from K3, AgFunder, others to expand footprint of meaty food made from mushrooms

Disclosure: AFN’s parent company, AgFunder, is an investor in Fable Food Co.

• Fable Food Co, the Australian meat alternative startup, has raised $8.5 million in Series A funding led by K3 Ventures, a Singapore-based venture capital firm that’s backed leading food tech companies ByteDance and Grab.
• Other new investors include the former global CEO of the parent company to fast food brands like KFC and Taco Bell Greg Creed, animal rights and bioethics expert Professor Peter Singer from Princeton University, and SaladStop! cofounders Frantz Braha and Adrien Desbaillets.
• Existing Fable Food investors Blackbird, AgFunder, and Aera VC also participated alongside Australian TV host known for The Bachelor series in Australia Osher Günsberg and his wife Audrey Griffen.
• Fable Food will use the funding to accelerate the research, development and launch of new meaty mushroom products, with particular focus on expansion in North America, the UK and Singapore where the company already has a presence.

Why it matters

Amid growing controversy and rhetoric around the future of the plant-based meat alternative sector today, one major claim laid at companies’ doors is the health profile of its products and the amount of processing and added ingredients involved. Made predominantly from shiitake mushrooms instead of soybean or pea like many others, Fable’s meaty mushroom products are minimally processed and clean label with all natural ingredients. (I saw them being prepared last year in Singapore and it really was mostly mushrooms!) Mushrooms are known to be a good source of low calorie fiber, protein, and antioxidants, with some research saying they can play a role in weight loss and may also reduce the risk of serious health conditions likeAlzheimer’s, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

Fable has also got the attention of celebrity chefs including Heston Blumenthal who features it on the menus of his Michelin Star restaurants in the UK. But they are not just for premium restaurants. Last year Fable launched in UK burger chain Honest Burgers, meal delivery companies Gousto and Planty, and UK organic supermarket chain Planet Organic, as well as US plant-based quick service restaurant chain Beatnic (formerly By Chloe), New Zealand’s Hell Pizza, and Singapore’s SaladStop!

And it’s off to a strong start in 2023 too, with meaty pulled mushrooms launched into plant-based New York based meal delivery service CookUnity, plant-based restaurant chain The Butcher’s Daughter, as well as leading Canadian cooked meal delivery service Ethey. Next month, renowned US steakhouse chain STK Steakhouse will launch Fable’s mushroom burger slider patties nationally as the first plant-based option on the menu of the steakhouse chain.