This year, Meatless Farm launched a vegan steak made from pea protein, adding to its range of plant-based food that includes meat free mince, burgers and chicken. Danish entrepreneur Morten Toft Bech founded the Leeds-based business in 2016. It opened production hubs in the Netherlands and Canada last year and now exports to more than 20 countries. Its products are available in retailers and foodservice outlets, such as Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Pret and Fridays restaurants. Meatless Farm has raised £38m to date, including £3.3m on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube last year. Investors include cyclist Mark Cavendish.
‘What creates good entrepreneurship? Obsession!’
MORTEN TOFT BECH
FOUNDER - MEATLESS FARM
More Founder Stories
How I started my multi-million-pound technology business from a pig shed
Charlie Jardine is probably the only Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneur who launched his business in a pig shed. In 2015, he converted a barn on his grandfather’s Suffolk farm and began to develop his first product – an electric-vehicle (EV) charger. From there, things accelerated quickly…
Charlie Jardine
Founder - EO Charging
Being an entrepreneur is probably the worst way to make money…you have to be in it for the adventure!
This ‘insurtech’ start-up uses technology to deliver online insurance and detect fraud. It offers insurance policies to renters and people in house shares, as well as homeowners, and has amassed more than 100,000 customers since it was founded in 2016 by Jimmy Williams and Greg Smyth. This May, the London-based company secured £16.5m in a […]
Jimmy Williams
Co-founder
Urban Jungle
How we pulled off the best Dragons’ Den deal in history and exited for £12.5m
Entrepreneurs Henry de Zoete and Will Hodson made Dragons’ Den history by netting the best cash-to-equity deal in the show’s history and a year later, they sold their business, for £12.5m. Business-wise, years don’t come much better. Read their full story and more about what they have planned next here…
Henry de Zoete and Will Hodson
Co-founders - Look After My Bills
6 ways to create a killer brand
Why do some brands fly? What is it exactly that makes the ‘feel’ of a product or service so instantly enticing that it attracts customers like a magnet? To find out from someone who’s built one of the most successful UK brands of the past 10 years, we interviewed Juliet Barratt, co-founder of sports-nutrition brand […]
Juliet Barratt
Co-founder - Grenade
The twins set to shake up the cosmetics industry
Beijing-born twins Jake Xu and Shane Carnell-Xu launched this men’s cosmetics brand in 2019 after raising funds from angel investors Sally Preston and Neil Mather of Kiddylicious, the children’s snack business. Bestsellers in Shakeup’s skincare and makeup range include moisturiser, under eye concealer and face masks. The brand is stocked by national and overseas retailers, such as Harvey Nichols, Superdrug and Australia’s Myer, and it recently launched its new Face 4ward range in China. The Xu brothers previously set up READY, a creative agency based in Bath.
Jake Xu & Shane Xin Carnell-Xu
Shakeup Cosmetics
8 Explosive Lessons from a £200m Journey
Entrepreneurial journeys don’t come much wilder. In March 2021, Juliet Barratt watched through tear-filled eyes as Cadbury owner Mondelez International bought the business she’d co-launched in her spare bedroom 11 years ago. The deal was reportedly worth £200m. So why the tears? Quite simply because Grenade was her baby…
JULIET BARRATT
CO-FOUNDER - GRENADE