Impossible Foods makes plant-based chicken, pork, burgers and sausages.

Impossible Foods, which makes climate-friendly meats from plants that are nutritious and as good to taste as the real thing, is in discussions for a $500 million raise at a potential valuation of $7 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Though talks are still at an initial stage and terms could change, the news was not confirmed by Impossible Foods.

The start-up competes with listed company Beyond Meats (NASDAQ: BYND), and already has its products on the shelves at grocery chains including Walmart (NYSE: WMT), Kroger (NYSE: KR), Albertsons (NYSE: ACI) and Trader Joe’s.

Advantage: Meat substitutes

Plant-based meats have taken off in recent years, particularly during the pandemic when real meat was not available on supermarket shelves due to supply chain difficulties emanating from meat packing plants.

According to the company, if cattle demand declined, greenhouse gas emissions would shrink, while increasing the amount of carbon stored through vegetation. It would slow deforestation and biodiversity loss. It would release land from overgrazed pasture and soy monoculture back into carbon-hungry forests and grasslands.

The benefits of using a plant-based product versus real ground beef are manifold: It needs 96% less land, generates 89% less of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, and uses 87% less water.

Daring Foods

Unsurprisingly, there is evident investor enthusiasm for meat substitutes. Vegan chicken brand Daring Foods announced today its third investment in the last 12 months, including commitments from top notch investors.

The startup raised $65 million in its Series C funding led by Founders Fund, as well as existing investor D1 Capital Group, and new athlete and celebrity investors including Naomi Osaka, Cameron Newton, Steve Aoki, and Chase Coleman.

Daring has thus raised $120 million between its Series A held in September 2020 and its latest funding.

It expects the vegan food market to touch $162 billion by 2030.

Meanwhile, if Impossible Foods indeed garners a valuation of $7 billion it would mark a coup – overtaking rival Beyond Meat’s market capitalization of $6.34 billion as of yesterday.

Related Story: Impossible Foods Raises $200M; Vegan Pork On The Way