Impact Investing & IPO's
EXITING Impact Investing IPO & Funding Rounds
At Beyond Meats BYND initial public offering (IPO), it's “stock skyrocketed 163% that day, marking the best initial public offering of 2019''. It aimed to raise almost 200 million US$ at 25US$, it's market capitalization now 4,44 Billion$ at 92$ (16/5/2019 (YF). BYND competitor Impossible Burger is worth 2 billion $ after a 300 Million $ funding round and a deal with Burger King to sell it's burgers in the USA where it has over 7000 restaurants. Worldwide +10.000.
WHY this initial ''sudden'' success?
Beyond Meat BYND inspired me to look at it's from an Impact Investing perspective coming up with a concept checklist:
It's #ethical : don't eat / kill animals or limit it (to special occasions in Christianity);
Mass production such Factory Farming is cruel and not reflecting a stewardship approach to the Creation.
It's #responsible : eating vegetable protein is an good & healthy ! alternative alternative for meat and contributes to zero hunger (800 million People of which 90 million children are underweight.
Meat rich diets contribute to obesity. Worldwide 1.9 billion adults, 18 years and older, were overweight. Of these over 650 million were obese (WHO).
It's #sustainable Meat production e.g. beef is not sustainable with global population growth & the protein challenge. To produce 1kg beef, one needs 7kg grains & between 5,000 and 20,000 liters of sweet water. Production of 1kg of wheat requires between 500 and 4,000 liters of water. (IME). Meat production contributes to climate transition destroying tropical rain forests in Latin America for soy farming (feed) & cattle farming.
It's #inclusive through it's public offering & listing on NASDAQ where one can invest with any App these days. The IPO price was inclusive at 25 S$ attractive to retail investors, even at almost +375% it is still below 100US$.
Venture Capital is already surpassed by crowdfunding globally which is open to ''all'' on the internet & transparent. A guesstimate of Dutch crowdfunding showed approximately 25% went to impact investments e.g. in renewable energy & responsible consumption. The Netherlands even had a provincial hospital (building) partially crowdfunded.
It contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals #SDGs.
An effective SDG investment contributes to SDG8 Economic Growth & Decent Work (income access to basic needs), it is Innovative, creates exponential growth to realize affordable access to basic needs SDG9 and any other SDG.
Beyond Meat is a People Investment contributing to Health(ier diet) & Wellness SDG3 & SDG2 Zero Hunger once plant protein has overcome animal protein consumption and wheat, nuts, vegetable & fruit production is not competing with market margins, profitability of meat production.
Beyond Meat is a Planet Investment as meat production contributes to the climate transition destroying tropical rain forests.
It's seeks #growthcapital for #disruptive innovation.
Beyond Meat is a #NewCapitalism corporation offering a #SocietalSolution for our (financial) markets mechanisms (Beinhocker & Hanauer : New Capitalism). Meat (production) is cheap because costs are not priced (in): obesity, lifestyle diseases, land use & deforestation, water & fodder use, herbicides & pesticides, carbon emission, energy use, pollution from transportation and refrigeration.
Comments welcome @Alcanne